Gender apartheid imposed in Kabul fun parks

Kabul, March 27

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A part of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan tasked with enforcing adherence to strict Islamic fundamentalism has ordered all amusement parks in the capital to be segregated by gender, RFE/RL reported.

The limit on such mixing at fun parks will deepen concerns for girls’ and women’s rights as it follows a last-minute reversal last week that prevented Afghan girls from returning to reopened schools.

The hard-line Taliban’s Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice on March 27 ordered that all Kabul venues with rides and games should be opened to women and girls from Sundays through Tuesdays and to boys and men on Wednesdays through Saturdays.

There is no exception for families on the ministry’s timetable.

UN and other international observers have repeatedly warned of abuses under the seven-month-old regime of girls and women, including draconian limits on their movement, freedom to work or travel, or ability to carry out even the simplest daily aspects of public life.

“The Taliban regime is now officially a gender apartheid authoritarian police state,” Tamim Asey, executive chairman of the Institute of War and Peace Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations of Afghanistan, tweeted after the parks ban was announced, adding, “The regime while a de facto reality… merits no recognition and legitimacy”, RFE/RL reported. IANS