Call to reverse decision to ban Afghan women from public parks

London-based Amnesty International called on the Taliban to reverse its recent decision to stop women from visiting public parks in Kabul.

"Afghanistan: The Taliban banning women from public parks in Kabul according to media reports is yet another blow to women's rights in the country. Any such decision by the Taliban must be reversed immediately as women's rights under the Taliban have been systematically under attack," Amnesty said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Since the return of the Taliban to Kabul in August 2021, the Taliban's systematic attacks on the rights of women and girls and the use of violence, including torture and enforced disappearances, have created a culture of fear in Afghan society.

In its latest order, the Taliban's notorious Ministry of Virtue and Vice stopped women from attending parks in Kabul, TOLO news reported.

The report added that this restriction has been placed on women due to non-hijab observance.

With the Taliban back in power, women have been barred from exercising their basic rights such as freedom of movement, right to education and political participation.

In the statement, Amnesty continued saying that the Taliban also decimated institutions designed to address cases of domestic violence against women under the former government. "The Taliban have unlawfully arrested, detained & tortured women peaceful posters including several women activists arrested just days previously."

Furthermore, the group asked the International Community to not turn a blind to the systematic suffering of women and their rights under Taliban rule.

This latest report comes in the backdrop of the UN warning that two-thirds of Afghans are going hungry, with girls' education subject to "random edicts" of the Taliban, while crime and terrorism are thriving once more buoyed by a large spike in opium production.

On Thursday, UN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi painted a near-apocalyptic picture of ordinary life in the Taliban-ruled nation that has endured almost five decades of "relentless conflict", urging the international community to make up the USD 2.3 billion shortfall in the UN humanitarian appeal for USD 4.4 billion.

Delivering a speech in New York, he said that there was "a moral and also a practical imperative for the international community to support an inclusive and sustainable peace in Afghanistan."