KABUL —
The Taliban have ordered airlines in
Afghanistan to stop women from flying
unless accompanied by a male relative, in the latest crackdown on basic human
rights by the country’s new rulers since seizing power.
اضافة اعلان
The hardline
Islamists have imposed sweeping restrictions on freedoms, mostly targeting
Afghan girls and women, and on Sunday also ordered local television channels to
stop broadcasting BBC news bulletins.
Over the
weekend, they also decreed that men and women could not visit parks in the
capital on the same days.
After returning
to power in August the
Taliban promised a softer version of the harsh rule that
characterized their first stint in power, from 1996 to 2001, but restrictions
have crept back — often implemented regionally at the whim of local officials.
Women are
increasingly being shut out of public life — barred from high schools and most
government jobs, and ordered to dress according to the Taliban’s strict
interpretation of the Quran.
In their latest
crackdown, the Taliban ordered Afghanistan’s Ariana Afghan Airlines and Kam Air
to stop women from boarding flights unless they were escorted by a “mahram”, or
adult male relative.
The decision was
taken after a meeting on Thursday between representatives of the Taliban, the
two airlines, and Kabul airport immigration authorities, aviation officials
told AFP.
“No women are
allowed to fly on any domestic or international flights without a male
relative,” said a letter by a senior Ariana official to his staff, a copy of
which was obtained by AFP.
A spokesman for
the Taliban’s religious enforcers, the
Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and
Prevention of Vice, denied ordering the flight ban, but two travel agents told
AFP they had stopped issuing tickets to solo women travelers.
The edict was
not expected to affect foreigners, although aviation officials reported that an
Afghan woman with a
US passport was prevented from flying last week.
“Some women who
were traveling without a male relative were not allowed to board a Kam Air
flight from
Kabul to Islamabad on Friday,” a passenger on the flight told AFP.
The Taliban have
already banned inter-city road trips for women traveling alone.
The flight ban
came as the vice ministry ordered that men and women should not visit parks in
Kabul on the same days.
Women are now
permitted to visit parks only on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays, while the
remaining days are reserved for men, a ministry notification said.
“It is not the
Islamic Emirate’s order but our God’s order that men and women who are
strangers to each other should not gather at one place,” Mohammad Yahya Aref,
an official at the vice ministry, told AFP.
The new
restriction on women follows Wednesday’s shutdown of all girls’ secondary
schools just hours after they were allowed to reopen for the first time since
August.
Tens of
thousands of girls had flocked back to class, but officials ordered them home
just hours into the day, triggering international outrage.
Taliban sources said that
the decision was taken after a closed-door meeting of the movement’s leaders
last week in Kandahar, the de facto power center of the group.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
