Kabul: The Taliban enforced a sports ban on Afghan women, claiming that this would expose their bodies to the media on Wednesday. This comes just one day after the Taliban in Afghanistan announced an all-male cabinet.
Commenting on the ban, Ahmadullah Wasiq, the deputy head of the fundamentalist group’s Cultural Commission, said that sports were unnecessary for women of the country.
According to Reuters, the Afghanistan cricket board was awaiting news on whether and how the women’s game would be allowed to continue under the new regime, which is notorious for its orthodoxy and repression of female rights.
Following a long period of women’s absence from the field, 25 cricketers were reportedly handed contracts to play last year. However, since the Taliban took power, the exclusion is likely to persist in the future.
The Taliban announced earlier this week that only a woman teacher would be allowed to teach female students, but that if it was not possible, “elderly males” of excellent character might fill in.
According to the Taliban, women attending private Afghan institutions must wear an abaya robe (full-length dress) and niqab (face-covering garment). They claimed that the classrooms should be separated by gender, or at the very least separated by a curtain.
The directive covers private colleges and universities, which have exploded in popularity since the Taliban’s first regime ended in 2001.
The Taliban proclaimed the formation of a new Afghan government on Tuesday, with Mullah Hassan Akhund as its leader. A Taliban spokesman claimed this will be an “acting” government, not a permanent one, weeks after the Islamic militant group seized power in Afghanistan.
