KABUL: The Taliban have banned families and women from restaurants with gardens or green spaces in Afghanistan’s northwestern Herat province, an official said Monday. The moves followed complaints from religious scholars and members of the public about mixing of genders in such places, he said.
It was the latest in a slew of restrictions imposed by the Taliban since they took power in August 2021. They have shut girls out of classrooms beyond sixth grade and women from universities, most types of employment, including jobs at the United Nations. They are also banned from public spaces such as parks and gyms.
Authorities say the curbs are in place because of gender mixing or because women allegedly are not wearing the hijab, or Islamic headscarf, correctly.
The outdoor dining ban only applies to establishments in Herat, where such premises remain open to men. Baz Mohammad Nazir, a deputy official from the Ministry of Vice and Virtue’s directorate in Herat, denied media reports that all restaurants were off limits to families and women, dismissing them as propaganda.
It applied only to restaurants with green areas, such as a park, where men and women could meet, he said. “After repeated complaints from scholars and ordinary people, we set limits and closed these restaurants.”
He also denied reports that sales of DVDs of foreign films, TV shows and music are banned in the province, saying that business owners were advised against selling this material because it contradicted Islamic values.
Shopkeepers who did not follow through on the advice eventually saw their shops closed, Nazir added. He also denied local media reports that Internet cafes have shut down in Herat, but said that gaming arcades were now off-limits to children because of unsuitable content. Some games insulted the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure in the Great Mosque at Makkah toward which Muslims turn when praying, and other Islamic symbols.
“Internet cafes, where students learn and use for their studies, are necessary and we have allowed them,” Nazir said.
Taliban ban restaurant gardens for families, women in Herat
https://arab.news/6vvjn
Taliban ban restaurant gardens for families, women in Herat
- The outdoor dining ban only applies to establishments in Herat, where such premises remain open to men
- It applied only to restaurants with green areas, such as a park, where men and women could meet, an official said
Swedish intelligence chief says ‘risk’ of security situation deteriorating
- Essen said Russia had conducted “security-threatening activities against Sweden and in Sweden” for years
- There had also been sabotage in the Baltic states and in Germany
STOCKHOLM: The head of Sweden’s intelligence service told AFP Tuesday that there was a “risk” that an already serious security situation would continue to deteriorate, pointing primarily to a threat from Russia.
Charlotte von Essen said Russia had conducted “security-threatening activities against Sweden and in Sweden” for a number of years.
“This involves everything from intelligence gathering, influence operations, and illegal technology acquisition. But it also involves sabotage activities,” she added.
There had also been sabotage in the Baltic states and in Germany, said von Essen, head of the Swedish Security Service (Sapo).
But amid recurring reports of suspected drone flights, she cautioned about attributing too much to Russia.
“One might get the impression that Sweden has been subjected to extensive hybrid activities,” von Essen said, saying her service did not share “that view.”
Some of the drone sightings had not checked out and some suspected sabotage had turned out to have been things like break-ins related to more traditional crime.
Von Essen insisted that some activities, such as cyberattacks, could still be linked to “foreign powers.”
“We need to be careful before we speculate and draw conclusions, because Russia is not behind everything,” von Essen said.
Attributing too much to foreign powers risked playing into their hands and could lead to a misallocation of resources.
Apart from Russia, von Essen said that both China and Iran posed threats to Swedish security.
“We’ve previously pointed out that Iran uses criminal networks in Sweden as proxies to carry out attacks here to achieve its objectives,” she said.
When it came to China, the threat was mostly about Chinese attempts to access Swedish research “in order to build, among other things, its own military capability.”
Last week von Essen decided to keep the terrorist threat assessment at an “elevated” level — keeping it at three on a five point scale.
It has been at that level since May last year, when it was lowered from four.
Sapo had raised the level to four in August 2023, after a slew of protests involving Qur'an burnings and desecrations had made the country a “prioritized target.”
