The Ministry of Virtue and Vice in Afghanistan put a ban on women going to parks, and gyms into effect this week. Life under the Taliban is not getting any better for women, it’s getting worse.

The excuse for the ban is that women were not wearing their hijabs in areas where both men and women were gathered. A spokesman said there was no other choice but to exclude women from such leisurely activities. Gender segregation orders must be observed and hijabs or head coverings must be worn.

Mohammed Akef Mohajer, a Taliban-appointed spokesman for the ministry, said the group had “tried its best” over the past 15 months to avoid closing parks and gyms for women, ordering separate days of the week for male and female access or imposing gender segregation. “But, unfortunately, the orders were not obeyed and the rules were violated, and we had to close parks and gyms for women,” he said.

“In most cases, we have seen both men and women together in parks and, unfortunately, the hijab was not observed. So we had to come up with another decision and for now we ordered all parks and gyms to be closed for women.”

It’s the same old Taliban that was in charge of Afghanistan over twenty years ago before the attacks on 9/11/01. Women and girls had a reprieve from such oppressive codes of conduct for about twenty years while Western troops were present in Afghanistan but that all changed with Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from the country. Now they are back to the bad old days. Girls who were born after 2001 who never knew life under the Taliban were quickly introduced to it after the Taliban rushed into Kabul and took control when the Americans left.

Despite alleged promises to the contrary that the Taliban made to Biden and the State Department before the withdrawal, when the Taliban overran the country in August 2021, the brutal oppression against women and girls began anew. Girls were banned from middle school and high school, women were restricted from most fields of employment, and they were ordered to wear head-to-toe clothing in public. The Biden administration naively believed the Taliban’s promises and Biden even told a reporter that the Taliban would not take over the country right away after the U.S. withdrawal.

It took no time at all for the Ministry of Virtue and Vice to begin its work. Now, under the new ban, Taliban teams are monitoring establishments to see if women are using them. The Taliban-led administration is filled with hard-liners even though it is internationally isolated because of its harsh and discriminatory behavior against women and girls. Changes are not being made in how the Taliban rules the country despite its economic downturn. Millions of Afghans are living in poverty and hunger since foreign aid slowed.

Reuters reporters witnessed several women being turned away from a Kabul amusement park that had rides like bumper cars and a Ferris wheel. Taliban agents were monitoring the situation.

Joe Biden has a career record off being wrong on all of his foreign policy decisions. The botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and refusing to listen to reasonable advice from the Pentagon and military leaders at that time is a good example of his ineptness and lack of leadership. Afghan citizens are now suffering for his actions, especially women and girls. The withdrawal from Afghanistan is a stain on America that will take decades to ease.