The Taliban has tightened the code of conduct and in recent days has imposed a series of restrictions on the behavior of citizens in Afghanistan, such as the ban on women traveling alone by plane and on civil servants working without a beard and the segregation of parks by gender.
The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which is responsible for this type of rule, has not publicly confirmed the measures, but several sources have told AFP and Reuters news agencies that they are already in place.
On Monday (28), representatives of the fundamentalist regime were patrolling the entrances of public services to check that employees were wearing beards and clothing typical of the Pashtun ethnic group – a blouse and baggy pants and a hat or turban – three sources told Reuters. . They were also instructed to ensure that they prayed at the correct times.
On Sunday, the parks became segregated by sex, with women allowed to enter three days a week and men the other four days, including the weekend, meaning that even couples and families cannot attend these places together. .
Women, who face most of the strict restrictions dictated by the group, were also hit by the new measures. After closing high schools to girls on the same day they had promised to open them, the Taliban ordered airlines to only allow them to board their passenger flights accompanied by a male relative.
The Taliban had previously banned women from traveling alone by land if the journey was longer than 72 kilometers, but until now they were allowed to board flights.
The Islamist movement promised it would present a more tolerant version of the rigid code of behavior its regime imposed in its first period in power, from 1996 to 2001, but since August it has reversed two decades of advances in Afghan women’s rights.
They have been excluded from most public and high school positions and are required to wear clothes in accordance with a strict interpretation of the Quran.
Two airline employees Ariana Afghan and Kam Air said Sunday night that the Taliban had ordered them not to allow women to travel without a male relative.
The decision was taken after a meeting on Thursday between representatives of the Taliban, the two airlines and the airport’s immigration authorities, the two officials told AFP, who requested anonymity.
The regime told AFP it had not issued any guidelines to ban women traveling alone on planes, but a letter sent by an Ariana Afghan executive to the company’s workers confirms the new instructions, which must apply to all flights.
“No woman may travel on a local or international flight without a male relative,” the letter states.
Two travel agents contacted by AFP also confirmed that they had stopped issuing tickets to women traveling alone.
A passenger on a Kam Air flight from Kabul to Islamabad on Friday also told AFP that some women traveling without a male relative were unable to board.
It remains unclear whether the rule applies to foreign women, but local media reported that an Afghan woman with a US passport was barred from taking a flight last week.
Radical Islamists also appear to have initiated a crackdown on the media, which had thrived under previous US-backed governments.
This Monday, in Kandahar province (south), Taliban intelligence services carried out operations against four radio stations that play music and arrested six journalists.
On Sunday, the Taliban ordered the interruption of BBC programs on the British group’s partner stations.
