WOMEN-hating Taliban fighters splashed around on pedalos in Afghanistan’s only national park – hours after female staff were banned from going to work.
Gleeful gunmen, armed with rocket-propelled bomb launchers and Kalashnikov assault weapons, were seen riding swan-shaped pedalos in the stunning Band-e Amir lake in central Bamiyan.
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The park, which was once a tourism hotspot, boasts six deep blue lakes.
In 2001, the Taliban destroyed two 1,500-year-old Buddha statues carved into mountains in Bamiyan.
This swanning about took place after the Taliban gained control in Afghanistan. Video was then released that showed some people riding dodgems at an seized theme park.
Bizarre video showed the heavily armed fanatics, who carry out brutal executions, stonings and amputations, also riding on a kids’ merry-go-round.
Pictures of the carefree militants enjoying themselves on swan pedalos came as the mayor of Kabul, Hamdullah Namony, ordered female staff to stay home in the latest blow to women’s rights since the hardline zealots seized power five weeks ago.
Namony stated that female staff cannot be replaced by males, including women who use public toilets.
Hopes that the Taliban had mellowed in their 20 years out of power have been dashed by decrees rolling back women’s rights.
Girls schools have been ordered to stay closed, effectively banning half the country’s children from secondary education.
The university classes were segregated with only women and elderly men being allowed to teach female students.
VICE & VIRTUE MINISTRY
On Friday, they axed the Women’s Affairs Ministry, replacing it with a vice and virtue squad.
Vice and virtue police were used to beat Afghan women who left their homes without their male relatives, or failed to wear all-enveloping veil protection.
On Sunday, around two dozen women protested outside the new vice-and virtue ministry.
One placard read: “A society in which women are not active is (sic) dead society.”
“Why are they (the Taliban) taking our rights?” Basira Tawana, 30, was asked by one of the protesters.
“We are here for our rights and the rights of our daughters.”
This protest took place just days after some girls were allowed to return to schools that had gender-segregated classes.
The older girls were left waiting anxiously to find out if and when they could resume their studies.
“You cannot suppress the voice of Afghan women by keeping girls at home and restricting them, as well as by not allowing them to go to school,” Taranum Sayeedi, a protester, said.
“The woman of Afghanistan today are not the woman of 26 years ago,” She said more.
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