It’s not uncommon for women to drive in Afghanistan’s larger cities, especially Herat. (File)
Herat:
Taliban officials in Afghanistan’s most progressive city have asked driving instructors to stop issuing driving licenses to women, experts in the field told AFP.
While Afghanistan is a deeply conservative, patriarchal country, it is not uncommon for women to drive in larger cities – especially Herat in the northwest, which has long been considered liberal under Afghan standards.
“We have been verbally instructed to stop issuing licenses to women driving … but we are not instructed,” said Jan Agha Achakzai, head of the Herat Institute of Traffic Management which oversees driving schools. prevent women from driving in the city.
Adila Adeel, a 29-year-old woman who owns a training academy, said the Taliban wanted to ensure that the next generation would not have the same opportunity as their mother.
“We were told not to offer driving courses and not to issue licenses,” she said.
The insurgents turned rulers regained control of the country last August, promising a softer rule than during their last rule from 1996 to 2001, which affected by human rights violations.
But they have increasingly restricted the rights of Afghans, especially girls and women, who have been prevented from going back to high school and many government jobs.
“I personally told a Taliban (guard) that I was more comfortable in a car than sitting next to a taxi driver,” said Shaima Wafa as she drove to the local market to buy groceries. Eid al-Fitr gift for family.
“I need to be able to get my family to the doctor in my car without waiting for my brother or my husband to come home,” she said.
Naim al-Haq Haqqani, head of the provincial department of culture and information, said no official orders had been issued yet.
The Taliban largely refrain from issuing written national edicts, instead allowing local governments to issue their own edicts, sometimes verbally.
Fereshteh Yaqoobi, a woman who has been driving for many years, said: “There is no indication on any of the cars that it belongs only to men.
“Actually, it’s safer for a woman to drive her own car.”
Zainab Mohseni, 26, recently applied for a driver’s license because she says women feel safer in their own cars than in taxis driven by male drivers.
For Mohseni, the latest decision is just a new sign that the new regime won’t stop at stopping Afghan women from enjoying the few rights they have left.
“Slowly, gradually the Taliban want to increase restrictions on women,” she said.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
