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Taliban forbid women to visit national park known as Afghanistan’s ‘Grand Canyon’
New York Daily News ^ | Aug 27, 2023 | Theresa Braine

Posted on 08/27/2023 8:36:00 PM PDT by george76

The Taliban has now banned women from a famous, family-filled national park because they are allegedly ditching their hijab once inside.

The Vice and Virtue Ministry of the regime that seized power in 2021 and is known for its atrocities and its ever-tightening restrictions on women said that failure to wear an Islamic head scarf was the culprit.

The list of things forbidden to women could read like an inverted Dr. Seuss title, “Oh the Places You Can’t Go”: higher education is banned, employment is off the table, beauty salons are closed, working out at a gym is off limits and most public spaces, including parks, are closed to women.

Now Band-e-Amir national park has been added to the list, in a move that also in effect bars families from the UNESCO site. Taliban security forces have been told to stop allowing women into one of the country’s most famous tourist attractions — an UNESCO World Heritage site known as Afghanistan’s Grand Canyon. It’s a series of mountain lakes connected by natural dams made of mineral deposits of travertine.

When it was established in 2009 in concert with the Wildlife Conservation Society, the park employed the country’s first-ever women park rangers, according to The Guardian.

“Women and our sisters cannot go to Band-e-Amir until we agree on a principle,” Vice and Virtue Minister Mohammad Khalid Hanafi said in remarks last week after visiting central Bamiyan province, where the park is located.

Ministry spokesman Molvi Mohammad Sadiq Akif shared a report of Hanafi’s remarks on Saturday, in which the minister directed not only security forces but also clerics and elders to enforce the ban.

“The security agencies, elders and the inspectors should take action in this regard,” he said, according to Afghan news channel Tolo news. “Going for sightseeing is not obligatory.”

The ban was revealed on Women’s Equality Day, noted Fereshta Abbasi of Human Rights Watch, calling the move a “total disrespect to the women of Afghanistan,” according to BBC News.

The United Nations and numerous human rights groups have already come down on the Taliban for their draconian restrictions on women. For many advocates, this latest ban crossed yet another line.

“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, associate women’s rights director of Human Rights Watch.

“Step by step, the walls are closing in on women as every home becomes a prison.”


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; banned; bannedwomen; taliban; women
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1 posted on 08/27/2023 8:36:00 PM PDT by george76
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To: george76

Sorry, it is their country.


2 posted on 08/27/2023 8:36:40 PM PDT by nwrep
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To: nwrep

Not my circus, not my monkeys, obviously the NOW Gang doesn’t care, so why should I?


3 posted on 08/27/2023 8:40:37 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: george76

Maybe they want to keep the loud talking to a minimum?


4 posted on 08/27/2023 8:41:10 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: DesertRhino

Kabul is safer than Chicago or Baltimore.


5 posted on 08/27/2023 8:42:41 PM PDT by nwrep
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To: george76
The United Nations and numerous human rights groups have already come down on the Taliban for their draconian restrictions on women. For many advocates, this latest ban crossed yet another line.

Word salad, signifying nothing.

6 posted on 08/27/2023 8:48:54 PM PDT by TomGuy
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To: george76

It is up to them to throw off their rulers.

If the American patriots like Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams and leaders like George Washington had counseled compromise and the subservient acceptance of giving up all rights to the British rulers forever, we would be eating jammy dodgers and digestives and drinking tea every afternoon.


7 posted on 08/27/2023 8:52:17 PM PDT by frank ballenger (You have summoned up a thundercloud. You're gonna hear from me. Anthem by Leonard Cohen)
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To: nwrep

And thus, their problem.


8 posted on 08/27/2023 8:59:57 PM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: dfwgator

Exactly.


9 posted on 08/27/2023 9:00:14 PM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: george76

We got to fly through it when our unit was there in 2006. We flew at what would have been ground level were it not for the huge chasm. It was a pretty neat flight going through it.


10 posted on 08/27/2023 9:24:18 PM PDT by AlaskaErik (There are three kinds of rats: Rats, Damned Rats, and DemocRats.)
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To: AlaskaErik

Thank you


11 posted on 08/27/2023 10:18:40 PM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: AlaskaErik

It’s about the size of Palo Duro Canyon in Texas.

Palo Duro is the little sister of the Grand Canyon.

My family used to spend the 4th of July in Palo Duro. Great place to visit and prepares you for the big sister.

We road-tripped to the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. Coming up on the ledge and seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time in person is both humbling and breath-taking.

Sorry, Afghanistan, your string of lakes does not compare.


12 posted on 08/27/2023 11:48:18 PM PDT by TheWriterTX (Trust not in earthly princes....!)
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To: george76

Thank Obama, Biden, possibly Garrett and Rice, Psaki, Jean-Pierre, Kerry, and the rest of the Democrats since 2009.


13 posted on 08/28/2023 2:25:54 AM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper (Figures )
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

Mostly thank the Afghan people for not fighting against them, and squandering the opportunity they got, courtesy of our blood and treasure.


14 posted on 08/28/2023 4:17:29 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

We threw the Taliban off of them for 20 years. Their own army failed to maintain their freedoms. Obviously they’re pretty OK with it.


15 posted on 08/28/2023 8:30:08 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: george76

Maybe if they do a hashtag #Bringbackourgirls sign it will work.


16 posted on 08/28/2023 4:24:23 PM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: george76

17 posted on 10/27/2024 6:36:19 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: george76

If the NOW Gang doesn’t care, why should I?


18 posted on 10/27/2024 6:36:44 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: george76

“ said Heather Barr, associate women’s rights director of Human Rights Watch..”

I’ll bet Heather thinks Orange Man Bad.

L


19 posted on 10/27/2024 6:39:40 PM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: TheWriterTX
Coming up on the ledge and seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time in person is both humbling and breath-taking.

May as well look at a picture.

When you walk rim-to-rim THEN you get an idea of it's size.

Oh, it's 22 miles.

20 posted on 10/27/2024 6:40:51 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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