Only a few months after directing access to be restricted based on gender, the Taliban have made it illegal for Afghan women to visit the city’s parks and amusement centres.
The new regulation, which went into effect this week, further extinguishes women’s access to the public sphere. Already, they are prohibited from travelling alone and are required to cover their heads with a hijab or burqa whenever they are outside the house.
In the majority of the nation, schools for teenage girls have been closed for more than a year.
Speaking on behalf of the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, Mohammad Akif Sadeq Mohajir said, “For the previous 15 months, we tried our best to arrange and sort it out—and even specified the days.”
The regulations were broken, he continued, “but nonetheless, in some locations indeed, we must say in many places,” he told AFP late on Wednesday.
“The decision has been made for the time being since there was mixing (of men and women) and hijab was not observed.”
Women and park managers who had spent a lot of money on building the facilities were shocked by the news.
One mother, who begged to only be recognised as Wahida, observed her children playing at a park from the window of an adjacent restaurant. “There are no schools, no work… we should at least have a place to have fun,” she remarked.
She explained to AFP that she and her family were simply bored and tired of spending the day at home.
Raihana, a 21-year-old university student majoring in Islamic law, revealed her displeasure at the subsequent table after making it to the park to spend the day with her sisters.
We were overjoyed, and we’re sick of staying in, she remarked.
“Obviously, it is acceptable to go outside and visit parks in Islam. What does it mean to live here when there is no freedom in your own country?”
A few kilometres distant, the majority of the rides at Zazai Park, which provides a breathtaking perspective of the city, have abruptly come to an end due to a lack of patronage.
It might have held hundreds of guests on days when ladies brought their kids for family gatherings before this week’s restriction.
Even more people would swarm to the park, one of the city’s few attractions, on Fridays and holidays.
On Wednesday, only a few men casually strolled through the complex.
Co-developer of the complex Habib Jan Zazai worries he might have to shut down a company he has invested $11 million in and that employs more than 250 people.
The children won’t arrive alone without women, he told AFP.
He warned that such decrees would hinder revenue collection as well as deter foreign or Afghan expatriate investment.
“Taxes are the lifeblood of a government; if an investor isn’t paying taxes, how can they function?”
The restriction, according to Mohammad Tamim, 20, who was drinking tea in the park while on a visit from Kandahar, where he works as a madrassa teacher, was “terrible news.”
According to him, “every human psychologically needs to be entertained.”
“Muslims need to be entertained, especially after 20 years of conflict”