Taliban government bans ties in schools in Afghan capital
Kabul, Apr 14 (EFE).- The Taliban government sent a letter to public and private schools in Kabul on Thursday prohibiting the use of ties for both students and teachers, marking yet another ban by the fundamentalists since capturing power in August last year.
The missive by the education ministry to all schools in Kabul instructs all students and teachers to “not use the tie in the uniform.”
However, Education Ministry spokesperson Aziz Ahamd Rehan told EFE the move was nothing more than a “recommendation for teachers and students.”
Ties have been a part of the uniform in many schools in Afghanistan, especially private ones.
The use of the tie is not prohibited in Islam, as it is used by popular Islamic scholars around the world.
So far, the Taliban have not explained ther reason for the ban on wearing a tie in schools, the latest in a long list of prohibitions imposed by the Islamists since capturing Kabul Aug.15.
In January, the powerful Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice recommended to shopkeepers in the western province of Herat to cut the heads of mannequins, a measure that gradually spread to other areas, including the capital, deeming these figures un-Islamic.
The restrictions have been particularly directed towards women.
Despite promising greater freedom, the Taliban have restricted the education of adolescent girls, restricted the movements of women and segregated public spaces by sex, among other measures, in line with their rigid interpretation of Islam.
The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice was one of the most feared institutions in the previous Taliban government in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.
The period is remembered for the implementation of harsh measures such as confining women to their homes and banning music reproduction, among others, while severe punishment was imposed on anything considered outside Islamic law.
During the democratic Afghan government following the United States led invasion that overthrew the Taliban government in 2001, this institution became nothing but an unpleasant memory for the people.
The infamous ministry, however, was brought back by the Taliban after the returning to power last year, and its current headquarters is that place that housed the Ministry of Women’s Affairs during the last two decades.
Since their return, the Taliban have recommended taxi drivers against transporting women without the Islamic veil, and have banned “immoral” films and removed female faces from shop windows. EFE
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