KABUL
\nGyms and public baths are now also off limits to Afghan women, the Taliban confirmed on Sunday, days after banning them from parks and funfairs.
\nWomen are increasingly being squeezed out of public life since the Taliban\u2019s return last year despite the hardliners promising a softer version of the harsh rule that characterised their first stint in power that ended in 2001.
\nMost female government workers have lost their jobs \u2014 or are being paid a pittance to stay at home \u2014 while women are also barred from travelling without a male relative, and must cover up with a burqa or hijab when out of the home.
\nSchools for teenage girls have also been shuttered across most of the country since the Taliban\u2019s August 2021 return.
\n\u201cGyms are closed for women because their trainers were male and some of them were combined gyms,\u201d Mohammad Akif Sadeq Mohajir, spokesman for the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, told.
\nHe said \u201chammams\u201d \u2014 traditional public bathing houses that have always been segregated by sex \u2014 were now also off limits.
\n\u201cCurrently, every house has a bathroom in it, so it won\u2019t be any issue for the women,\u201d he said. One video clip circulating on social media \u2014 which could not immediately be verified \u2014 showed a group of women, backs to the camera, lamenting the gym ban.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a women-only gym \u2014 the teachers and trainers are all women,\u201d a voice says, breaking with emotion.
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t just ban us from everything. Do we not have the right to anything at all?\u201d
\nActivists have said the increasing restrictions on women are an attempt to stop them from gathering to organise opposition to the Taliban\u2019s rule.
\nSmall groups of women have staged frequent flash protests in Kabul and other major cities, risking the wrath of Taliban officials who have beaten and detained them.
\nEarlier this month, the United Nations voiced concern after the Taliban disrupted a press conference in the capital, submitting female participants to body searches and detaining the event organiser and several others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KABUL Gyms and public baths are now also off limits to Afghan women, the Taliban confirmed on Sunday, days after banning them from parks and funfairs. Women are increasingly being squeezed out of public life since the Taliban\u2019s return last year despite the hardliners promising a softer version of the harsh rule that characterised their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-295005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n