Taliban denies Afghan women solo air travel, segregates parks by sex and sends home men with short beards

The Taliban rulers of Afghanistan proceed to chip absent at the freedoms the region understood for two decades, dragging Afghans again below their draconian model of Islamic sharia legislation and defiantly distancing their regime from the global community in the approach. The latest moves — both of those formal and unofficial — incorporate limits on girls touring, men’s grooming, and entry to international media and even community parks.

No solo flights for women of all ages

The Taliban have ordered airlines to prevent gals from flying without the need of a male relative.

Staff members of the two an airline and a vacation company explained to CBS News the order was handed down to airline officials this 7 days, while a spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Marketing of Vice and Advantage, Akif Muhajer, denied any this kind of purchase.

In December, the ministry banned ladies building any journey of in excess of 45 miles with no a male chaperone.

“A girl booked to fly on a domestic flight was stopped from boarding and skipped her flight. She arrived for a refund. She was crying, [saying she] experienced no male member in her family members,” mentioned the vacation agent.

Lots of Afghan people misplaced male customers all through the 20 many years of war that begun with the U.S. invasion to topple the Taliban regime in 2001. When that war finished, a lot of other men fled Afghanistan fearing reprisal attacks from the Taliban, leaving women of all ages by itself to raise households, and producing their independence of movement even more essential.

Develop your beard or reduce your work

On Sunday, the Taliban refused to permit staff of many authorities ministries report for do the job for the reason that they experienced trimmed their beards or were being not donning outfits deemed correct below the rulers’ interpretation of Islamic regulation.

Muhajer, the Ministry of Promotion of Vice and Advantage spokesman, verified the crackdown on govt workers’ visual appearance and explained a letter was despatched to all team a month in the past buying men to don a comprehensive beard and women to have on a hijab, or veil.

“Workforce of the Ministry of Advertising of Vice and Advantage ombudsmen went to some departments adhering to the purchase. Nevertheless some employees did not pay consideration to the instruction and ended up stopped for advising,” Muhajer reported on Sunday.

Muhammad Sheer, who is effective for the Afghan government in Kabul, was among people turned back from his office environment for acquiring trimmed his beard.

“The Promotion of Vice and Virtue individuals stopped us for a few of several hours and warned us that you should appear with a prolonged beard subsequent time, or threat losing your task,” he told CBS Information.

Sexual intercourse-segregated parks

In an additional draconian buy, the Taliban introduced on Sunday that all parks in the state would be segregated by sexual intercourse.

A letter from the Taliban ministry of Marketing of Vice and Advantage claimed ladies would be permitted to stop by community parks on 3 days each week, and adult men the other four days, which include unarmed Taliban members.

The get signifies families and couples will no lengthier be allowed to go to parks alongside one another.

Blocking entry to news

The U.S. State Section claimed in a statement on Monday that the Taliban was blocking Afghans’ obtain to several important media retailers funded wholly or partly by Western governments.

The statement reported the U.S. had famous with “alarm and deep issue” that the Taliban was refusing domestic distribution of broadcasts by the Voice of America, the BBC and Germany’s Deutsche Welle (DW).

These shops “described that their area broadcasting companions have been prevented from airing their programming in the state owing to new, restrictive, and unpublished rules from the Taliban,” the Point out Division mentioned.

Not residing up to “crucial commitments”

The latest limitations display the Taliban shifting methodically back to the policies it espoused all through the 1990s. They appear fewer than a week just after the country’s rulers still left pupils in tears with a final-minute announcement that Afghanistan’s colleges would stay closed to ladies in quality 6 and higher than.

The Taliban signed a offer with the United States in 2020 paving the way for a entire withdrawal of American soldiers from Afghanistan, ending the longest war in U.S. history and paving the way for the Islamic extremist group to reclaim electric power throughout the region.

Since the Taliban retook Kabul and grew to become Afghanistan’s de-facto governing administration all over again just 7 months ago, reps of the group have traveled to lots of overseas capitals hoping to gain diplomatic recognition.

But the U.S. Point out Department reported the continual crackdown on simple freedoms in the place produced it “crystal clear the Taliban are not dwelling up to the important commitments they manufactured to the Afghan people and the international neighborhood.”

“Training and liberty of expression are human rights held by each individual individual in Afghanistan. These are not Western values or concessions to the international neighborhood they are human legal rights and necessary to a tranquil and prosperous Afghan culture, which is one thing the Taliban assert to motivation,” the statement mentioned. “We urge the Taliban to stop these infringements on the legal rights of Afghans, and we go on to stand with the Afghan persons.”

CBS News’ Tucker Reals contributed to this report.