The Taliban are at it again in Afghanistan, at least in one province. In Herat, yet another freedom has been taken away from women. This time it is the freedom to dine outdoors at a restaurant. There has been a crackdown on women and families from dining in restaurant gardens because of complaints about gender mixing.

Remember when the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan happened and the Biden administration assured us that the Taliban wouldn’t rush in and fill the vacuum, that they wouldn’t immediately take back the country? Good times, good times. That is exactly what happened, as everyone knew would, and now it is as if the country has reverted more than 20 years. The progress Afghans made in the 2000s and the Western ways enjoyed by most Afghan women and girls is all gone now. They are back to being treated as property, lesser humans than their male counterparts. How cruel to rip away the freedoms known to the women and girls while Western forces were in the country. Many young women in their twenties didn’t grow up knowing life as it was under the control of the Taliban. They do now. How devastating.

Now this latest indignity.

An official confirmed today that women and families will be restricted from restaurants with gardens and green spaces in the northwestern province of Herat.

The latest crackdown on women’s rights follows complaints from religious scholars and members of the public about men and women mixing in such places, he said.

The Taliban claimed they would not return to the hardline policies of their predecessors who ruled the country from 1996-2001. They lied. It’s been a race to see how quickly life can return to the bad old days when women were confined to their homes. A woman is only allowed out in public if accompanied by her husband, brother, or another male family member. She is not trusted or respected.

With the return of the bad old days comes all the restrictions. Education is severely limited, if not banned for girls and women. Women are going underground and learning online when possible. They have been restricted from working as humanitarian NGOs, though the U.N. Security Council has urged the Taliban to reverse that decision. Women must cover up in public and so must store mannequins. Visits to parks, amusement parks, and gyms are restricted. You get the picture, life is not good for them.

Now something as simple as a family dinner can’t happen in a restaurant garden area, or green space, because there may be men and women present at the same time.

The outdoor dining ban only applies to establishments in Herat, where men are not faced with the same restrictions.

Baz Mohammad Nazir, a deputy official from the Ministry of Vice and Virtue’s directorate in Herat, denied media reports that all restaurants were off limits to families and women, dismissing them as propaganda.

It applied only to restaurants with green areas, such as a park, where men and women could meet, he said. ‘After repeated complaints from scholars and ordinary people, we set limits and closed these restaurants.’

Other recent restrictions in Herat include gaming arcades as the games are deemed unsuitable for children. Internet cafes have faced restrictions except where necessary for studies.

Shopkeepers have been forced to close their doors for refusing to stop selling DVDs of foreign films, TV shows, and music.

Women are banned from most employment, including working for the United Nations. Last month, the Taliban began enforcing blanket bans on all forms of contraception in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif, the fourth largest city.

Pharmacies and physicians in the capital Kabul and fourth largest city Mazar-e-Sharif confirmed to women-led Afghan outlet Rukhshana Media that Taliban officials have ordered them not to sell any contraceptives.

Sources living in several cities told Rukhshana that the Taliban has stopped importing contraceptives, and although they can still be bought in secret from private sellers, their price has skyrocketed as a result.

Afghanistan’s Public Health Ministry has not released any statement on the issue, but a source told The Guardian they were informed by Taliban enforcers in Kabul that ‘contraceptive use and family planning is a western agenda’.

‘The midwife I always visit said the Taliban has told them not to inject contraceptives because it is haram (forbidden),’ one woman told Rukhshana. ‘When she said that it was haram, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. When I went to buy tablets instead from outside, the price had doubled.’

Life is as hard as ever under the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, especially for women and girls. Girls are sold into marriage and the Taliban has begun voiding divorce decrees. This is all possible because of the vacuum in leadership created by Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. It was predicted and it happened. Joe Biden ignored the advice given by the military experts and leaders because he thought he was the smartest person in the room. He never is.