The Taliban-led government has imposed a prohibition on women from visiting the Band-e-Amir National Park located in Bamiyan province.

Mohammad Khaled Hanafi, Afghanistan's interim minister of virtue and vice, stated that women were not adhering to the hijab dress code while inside the park.

He called upon religious leaders and security agencies to prevent women from entering until a resolution is reached.

Band-e-Amir holds significant tourist value and was designated as Afghanistan's inaugural national park in 2009.

A favored destination for families, the restriction on women's entry will hinder many from enjoying the park's offerings.

Unesco has described the park as a "group of naturally formed lakes with unique geological formations and exquisite natural beauty".

Nonetheless, Mr. Hanafi mentioned that visiting the park for sightseeing was "not obligatory", as reported by Afghan agency Tolo News.

Religious figures in Bamiyan pointed out that the women failing to adhere to the rules were not locals but rather visitors to the area.

Sayed Nasrullah Waezi, the head of the Bamiyan Shia Ulema Council, stated, "Complaints about improper hijab or lack of it stem from non-residents of Bamiyan who come from elsewhere," according to Tolo News.

Former Afghan MP Mariam Solaimankhil shared a poem on X, formerly known as Twitter, expressing her confidence that "we'll return".

Fereshta Abbasi, from Human Rights Watch, noted that the ban was enforced on Women's Equality Day, calling it a "complete disregard for the women of Afghanistan".
Meanwhile, Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, asked why stopping women from visiting Band-e-Amir "is necessary to comply with Sharia and Afghan culture?".

The Taliban has a history of implementing bans on women doing certain activities on what it insists is a temporary basis, including preventing them from attending schools in December 2022.

The ban on visiting the Band-E-Amir National Park is the latest in a long list of activities that women have been prevented from doing since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

Most recently, the Taliban ordered hair and beauty salons in Afghanistan to shut and in mid-July stopped women from sitting the national university entrance exams.

That is a way of preventing women from reaching there to enjoy social activities.

Noted