Taliban official: Women banned from Afghanistan’s gyms

By RIAZAT BUTT
Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban official says women are banned from using gyms in Afghanistan. The rule, which comes into force this week, is the group’s latest edict cracking down on women’s rights and freedoms. A spokesman from the Ministry of Virtue and Vice said on Thursday that the ban was being introduced because people were ignoring gender segregation rules and that women were not wearing the headscarf, or hijab. Women are also banned from parks. The Taliban overran the country last year, seizing power in August 2021. They have banned girls from middle school and high school and restricted women from most jobs. The U.N. says the ban is another example of the Taliban’s “continued and systematic erasure” of women from public life.