Banning of women from Band-e-Amir sparks reactions

KABUL (TOLOnews): The banning of women from Band-e-Amir National Park in Bamiyan province sparked reactions at national and international levels.
Earlier, Mohammad Khaled Hanafi, the acting Minister of Virtue and Vice, asked all religious clerics and security agencies to forbid women from visiting Band-e-Amir National Park at a meeting in Bamiyan.
Heather Barr, director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, said that “Taliban” have taken the essential rights of women.
“This latest order by the Taliban instructing that women are not to go to Band-e-Amir is part of a pattern where the Taliban are step by step and quickly taking away from women everything that they need for their lives,” she said.
As a protest to banning women from going to the Band-e-Amir National Park, the UN Special Rapporteur for Afghan human rights, Richard Bennett, said online: “Can someone please explain why this restriction on women visiting Bande Amir is necessary to comply with Sharia and Afghan culture?”
“We are witnessing an increasing restriction on women. We hope the Islamic Emirate would have a motive for why women are banned from Band-e-Amir National Park,” said Tafseer Siah Posh, a women’s rights activist.
Band-e-Amir National Park is one of the famous tourist areas, where thousands of national and foreign visitors go for recreation. The women’s activists expressed concerns over a ban on female visitors to this area.
“As long as we see, the restrictions have been increasing on a daily basis. We call on the Islamic Emirate to bring facilities for the women,” said Safa, a resident of Kabul.
Hanafi said that the decision was taken because of women’s non-observance of hijab and said that women should be prevented from entering this park until a procedure is prepared.