The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which replaced the Women’s portfolio after the restoration of the Islamic Emirate, considers that “women should go to private bathrooms and wear the hijab there”
Authorities in the Afghan province of Balkh (north) have announced the closure of all public toilets for women, in the framework of the restrictions imposed by the Taliban on the rights of Afghan women since they took power in August.
The decision has been adopted unanimously by Muslim clerics and officials of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which replaced the Women’s portfolio after the restoration of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Thus, the head of the Ministry’s office in Balkh has stated that “since people do not have modern toilets at home, men can go to public toilets, but women must go to private toilets and wear the hijab there”, according to the Afghan news agency Jaama Press. The measure also includes a ban on access to bathrooms for minors, while massages are also prohibited. The authorities in Herat (northwest) have already temporarily closed access to the toilets to women.
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in mid-August with their irruption in Kabul, they have established a series of rules by which they have buried the small but important advances that women had managed to conquer in previous years. Soon, women were banned from the media and in administration positions, and they were also prohibited from participating in such everyday matters as going anywhere alone or having a mobile phone.
Last week, the authorities prohibited the women from taking long trips on their own and required that they be accompanied by a close family member. Likewise, the prohibition of playing music in cars was established, as well as the presence inside them of women who are not wearing the hijab.
The Taliban have established a government marked by the lack of women and representatives of other political groups. Despite this, the Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan, Abdulsalam Hanafi, stressed in October that this Executive “is inclusive” and added that the fundamentalist group has tried to incorporate all ethnic groups and social sectors into the new authorities.
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