KABUL: An Afghan official tried to explain the decision taken earlier this week to bar women from visiting parks, saying that park owners did not cooperate with the government in enforcement of segregation and also because women had not been meeting “our interpretation of Islamic attire during their visits”.

Mohammad Akif Muhajir, the spokesman for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, made the comments in an interview with local media.

“For the last 14 or 15 months we were trying to provide an environment according to Sharia and our culture for women to go to parks,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the owners of parks didn’t cooperate with us very well, and also women didn’t observe hijab as was suggested. For now, the decision has been taken that they are banned,” he said.

Women in Balkh and Badakhshan fear that the ban will be extended to the two provinces

Almost all women in Afghanistan wear a head scarf, or hijab, in public. However, the Taliban have said women should wear long flowing clothes that cover their bodies and also cover their faces, such as the all-enveloping burqa. Some women in Kabul and other urban centres do not cover their faces in public and others wear a surgical face mask. Western governments have said the Taliban need to reverse course on women’s rights, including a U-turn on signals they would open girls’ high schools, for any path towards formal recognition of the Taliban government. It was not clear how long the park restrictions would last and whether they would be extended across Afghanistan.

Park operators in western Herat and northern Balkh and Badkahshan provinces said they had not been asked to stop women entering yet.

Some women in those provinces said they were watching the restrictions in Kabul closely and were worried they might be applied in other provinces.

“Here they haven’t restricted women and girls yet, but you will never know when they change their minds,” said a woman in Badakhshan.

The Taliban say they respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2022