Taliban Bars Women To Celebrate Eid In Afghanistan’s Takhar, Baghlan Provinces

Kabul: The Taliban has directed women not to attend Eid celebrations in two provinces of Afghanistan. The orders were issued in the Takhar and Baghlan provinces of Afghanistan.

This comes as the ultra-conservative regime has implemented a series of restrictions, including barring girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade, preventing women from pursuing higher education and most forms of employment, including jobs at the United Nations.

According to a report by Khaama Press, two similar notifications were issued in the aforementioned provinces that stated, “It is forbidden for women to go out in groups during the days of Eid ul-Fitr” on Friday in the Takhar in the northeast and the Baghlan province in the north.

Earlier this month, the Taliban authorities banned the entry of women and families into restaurants with gardens or green spaces in Afghanistan’s northwestern Herat province.

“The moves followed complaints from religious scholars and members of the public about mixing of genders in such places,” an official said, as quoted by news agency PTI.

Since assuming power in August 2021, the Taliban has implemented a lot of restrictions on women. Besides preventing women from higher education and most forms of employment, they have also imposed a ban on women accessing public spaces such as parks and gyms.

Earlier, Baz Mohammad Nazir, a deputy official from the Ministry of Vice and Virtue’s directorate in Herat, denied media reports that all restaurants were off limits to families and women, dismissing them as propaganda, according to PTI.

He said it applied only to restaurants with green areas, such as a park, where men and women could meet. “After repeated complaints from scholars and ordinary people, we set limits and closed these restaurants.”