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UN voices concern over ban on Afghan women from using gyms, public baths
The European Union (EU) has also condemned the additional restrictions by the Taliban on women's freedom of movement, including the barring women from entering public parks and gyms.
The UN mission in Afghanistan has expressed its concern over reports of further curbs on women in the Taliban-ruled country, including them being prevented from using parks, gyms and baths, in part because they had not been meeting its interpretation of Islamic attire during their visits. Last week, a spokesperson for Taliban's morality ministry blamed the owners of parks for “not cooperating” with it on providing an “environment according to Sharia.”
"UNAMA is deeply concerned by recent Taliban officials' statements and mounting on-the-ground reports of women being prevented from using parks, gyms and baths. All Afghans' rights should be upheld, particularly women's access to all forms of public life and girls right to education," the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) wrote on Twitter.
The Taliban, since capturing Kabul in August last year, has enforced stringent curbs on women, including ban on travelling without a male relative.
"Gyms are closed for women because their trainers were male and some of them were combined gyms," Mohammad Akif Sadeq Mohajir, spokesperson for the Taliban's Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, told AFP.
He said traditional public bathing houses, or hammams, were now also off limits.
"Currently, every house has a bathroom in it, so it won't be any issue for the women," he said.
A number of rights groups, including Amnesty International, have called on the Taliban to reverse its recent decision to stop women from visiting public parks in Kabul.
The European Union (EU) has also condemned the additional restrictions by the Taliban on women's freedom of movement, including the barring women from entering public parks and gyms.
"These restrictions come in addition to the already severe violations by the Taliban of the rights of Afghan women and girls - in contradiction to Taliban's own initial promises," the 27-member bloc said in a statement on Monday.
