Taliban to bar women from restaurants with gardens or green spaces in the Herat province of Afghanistan

Afghan women in the Herat province will be barred from entering restaurants with gardens or green spaces, following yet another restriction imposed by the Taliban. The Taliban, which is predominantly male and conservative, has been oppressing women for a long time, and now it has banned women’s entry into restaurants with green spaces, as well as families.

Religious clerics reportedly complained about gender mixing in public places, which led to the decision. Afghan officials said that this step has been taken because many women were allegedly seen not wearing the hijab. The ban only applies to outdoor restaurants with green spaces in Herat, and it remains open to men.

A deputy official from the Ministry of Vice and Virtue’s directorate in Herat clarified that the ban is not applicable to all restaurants, but only those with green areas, such as a park, where men and women can meet. The ban came after repeated complaints from scholars and ordinary people, according to the official

The head of the Vice and Virtue directorate in Herat, Azizurrahman Al Muhajir, said that the banned restaurants were like a park, but they were named a restaurant, and men and women were together. He added that auditors were monitoring all the parks where men and women go. This is the latest restriction imposed by the Taliban since they took power in August 2021.

In the past, they have closed girls’ classrooms beyond the sixth grade, banned women from universities and most types of employment, including jobs at the UN, and barred women from public spaces such as parks and gyms. The UN reported that 3,300 male and female employees have stayed at home since women were banned from working at UN agencies.

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the situation for women, their rights, and basic freedoms has been deteriorating. Women in the country are not allowed to hold leadership roles, work, or travel without a male companion. The Taliban promised to reopen all schools on March 23 this year, but they closed secondary institutions for girls on that day instead. It is unclear when or if these schools will reopen, or if the ban is indefinite.