A spokesman for the Vice and Virtue Ministry said the Taliban will use security forces to stop women from visiting one of Afghanistan’s most popular national parks.

This is punishment served up by the Taliban leadership who claim that women are not wearing the hijab the proper way when going to Band-e-Amir in the central Bamiyan province. Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Mohammad Khalid Hanafi visited the province a week ago and told local officials and religious clerics that members of the security forces would stop women from visiting the popular tourist spot. He said that a trip to the national park isn’t a necessity. “Going sightseeing is not a must for women.” A recording of Hanafi’s speech in Bamiyan was shared on social media.

Human Rights Watch responded to the latest crackdown on women.

“Not content with depriving girls and women of education, employment, and free movement, the Taliban also want to take from them parks and sport and now even nature, as we see from this latest ban on women visiting Band-e-Amir,” said Heather Barr, the associate women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch in an emailed statement. “Step by step the walls are closing in on women as every home becomes a prison.”

When Joe Biden withdrew American service members from Afghanistan, killing 13 of those service members and killing and injuring Afghans from a terrorist attack at the airport in Kabul, he assured Americans that the Taliban would not rush in and fill the vacuum of leadership. He was wrong. The Taliban immediately took over. When the Taliban did that, the leadership said that this time around, it would be a kinder and gentler Taliban, not the cruel and misogynist Taliban of the past. They promised that women would not be relegated to being trapped in their homes, unable to go to school, work, or move about freely without a male chaperone. All lies. Hair and beauty salons have been ordered closed. Women are no longer allowed to sit for national university entrance exams. Since the Taliban took over, the bad old days are back.

Since August 15, 2021, the Taliban has targeted Afghan girls and women with harsh restrictions. They can no longer go to school beyond the sixth grade. Afghan women cannot work at local or non-governmental organizations.

Band-e-Amir is Afghanistan’s first national park. It’s a major tourist attraction in Bamiyan. Since 2009 it has brought in thousands of visitors every year. The park is a major source of income for locals and their sightseeing businesses, restaurants, hotels, and local crafters selling their wares. Afghan women once worked in this national park. Now they are not allowed inside.

Unesco describes the park as a “naturally created group of lakes with special geological formations and structure, as well as natural and unique beauty”.

The national park was established in 2019 by the local Afghan government, along with international agencies like USAID and the United Nations Development Program. It is considered an oasis with deep blue lakes surrounded by mountains. It sounds lovely. Too bad women are no longer being treated as human beings in Taliban-run Afghanistan.

As is his history in elected office, Joe Biden was wrong about what would happen in Afghanistan. He’s been wrong in his opinions and decisions on foreign history for 50 years. I think he probably understood that the Taliban would sweep in and fill the vacuum when America and NATO left but he didn’t care. He wanted to be able to brag about withdrawing from Afghanistan by 9/11/21, a symbolic achievement in his mind. He disregarded all the experts and military advisers and went his own way. The rest is history.

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