Taliban Bans Afghan Women From Flying Alone
The Taliban have ordered airlines in Afghanistan to stop women from boarding flights unless accompanied by a male relative.
After the Taliban took over Afghanistan last year, women are increasingly being shut out of public life. They are barred from school and most government jobs, and ordered to dress according to the Taliban’s strict interpretation of the Quran. In recent rules, the Taliban have ordered Afghanistan’s Ariana Afghan Airlines and Kam Air to stop women from boarding flights - domestic or international unless they were escorted by a “mahram”, or adult male relative. Aviation officials said that the decision was taken after a meeting on 24th March between representatives of the Taliban, the two airlines and Kabul airport immigration authorities. A spokesman for the Taliban's, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, denied ordering the flight ban. But the news agency AFP contacted two travel agents who confirmed that they had stopped issuing tickets to solo women travellers. It was not clear if the order would affect foreigners, although local media reported that an Afghan woman with a US passport was prevented from flying last week. A passenger on the flight said, "Some women who were travelling without a male relative were not allowed to board a Kam Air flight from Kabul to Islamabad on Friday 25th March.
The Taliban have already banned inter-city road trips for women travelling alone, but until now they were free to take flights. This is a violation of the basic human rights by the Taliban. Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on freedoms, mostly targeting Afghan girls and women. They also decreed that men and women could not visit parks in the capital on the same days. Women are now permitted to visit parks only on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, while the remaining days are reserved for men, a ministry notification said.
Mohammad Yahya Aref, an official at the Ministry said, "It is not the Islamic Emirate's order but our God's order that men and women who are strangers to each other should not gather at one place," Last week, the Taliban had permitted the reopening of all girls' secondary schools for the first time since August last year. But within hours they again ordered the shutdown of the schools. Tens of thousands of girls had flocked back to class, but officials ordered them to go home, this triggered an international outrage. Taliban sources said that the decision was taken after a closed-door meeting of top leaders Several Afghan women activists have warned of nationwide protests if the schools were not open within a week.
On Sunday 27th March they also ordered local television channels to stop broadcasting BBC news bulletins. government spokesman Inamullah Samangani said, "Since the foreign TV channels are broadcast from abroad, the Islamic Emirate has no access to control their contents," The Taliban have already ordered women journalists working in Afghan television networks to wear hijabs, and stopped channels from broadcasting foreign dramas. After returning to power, the Taliban had promised a softer version of the harsh rules that they followed in their first stint in power, from 1996 to 2001. But now it seems that the restrictions have crept back.
