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Afghanistan: Women banned from Kabul parks

The Taliban's Vice and Virtue Ministry are banning women from all parks in the capital, Kabul.

Since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, women in Afghanistan have had many of their rights and freedoms severely restricted by the militant Islamists. Women have been constrained in their education, their employment, what they can wear and their freedom of movement. Now the Taliban's Vice and Virtue Ministry have ordered a further restriction - that women be banned from all parks in the capital, Kabul.

One woman who lives in Kabul has been telling us how she's been affected. "Usually we would go out to the parks during evenings, I would meet my friends and eat something and talk... but now we must just stay at our homes," she says.

"We can't go anywhere without a male companion, we can't go shopping or go to a restaurant... these parks were very basic things for us. We were at least free to go there and have some time but now that's also banned," she says.

"With all the things they are doing to the women, and with all the restrictions... it only causes people to have mental health issues and depression," she adds.

(Photo: Two Afghan women take photographs in the Bagh-e-Babur Garden in Kabul, 15 April, 2018. Credit: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images)

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