Taliban forbid women from flying without male relative

Days after backtracking on their promise to allow the re-opening of girls' schools beyond sixth grade, the Taliban have now allegedly ordered that women in Afghanistan cannot board flights without a male chaperone.

According to a report in AFP, the Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in its letter to airlines, said: "No women are allowed to fly on any domestic or international flights without a male relative."

However, a Taliban spokesman has denied ordering any such ban, but several media reports have claimed that travel agents have already stopped issuing tickets to women travelling alone.

"Some women who were travelling without a male relative were not allowed to board a Kam Air flight from Kabul to Islamabad on Friday," a passenger on the flight told AFP.

The restrictions on women's movement do not come as a shock because the Taliban had taken the same approach during its rule in the 1990s.

Women are being barred from public places slowly, they are not allowed to get an education and have been banned from doing most government jobs.

Women were not allowed to step out of their houses without a male chaperone between 1996 and 2000 as well. They were not even allowed to get an education or work.

Under its current regime, women are forbidden from taking inter-city road trips alone, they can only visit public parks on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays. The group had previously promised to "protect" the rights of women and had said that women would be allowed to get an education.

After the takeover of Afghanistan in August last year, the Taliban had promised they would respect the rights of women "within the limits of Islam," but things on the ground say otherwise.

The Taliban have been targeting women who had been staging protests against the regime. Some are even being tortured for their rebellion.