Taliban’s worrying new order for airlines in Afghanistan

The militant group is going back on plenty of its promises, with its most recent order dragging airlines into the brutal regime.

The Taliban is returning Afghanistan to the brutal place it was in the late 1990s, stripping rights from women and ordering companies and schools to obey their conservative directions.

The latest order from the Taliban was issued to airlines, with the regime forcing carriers to stop women from boarding flights unless they are accompanied by a male relative.

Aviation officials from two of Afghanistan’s airlines confirmed they had received a letter from a senior Taliban official, ordering them to stop issuing tickets to solo women travellers.

“No women are allowed to fly on any domestic or international flights without a male relative,” the letter said.

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Women have been banned from flying out of or around Afghanistan alone. Picture: Karim Sahib/AFP

The letter was issued to Afghanistan’s Ariana Afghan airline and Kam Air on Monday, following a meeting the carriers had with the Taliban last week.

The Taliban’s Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice claimed it had not ordered airlines to bar female solo travellers but multiple airline officials and travel agents in Afghanistan confirmed the change.

“Some women who were travelling without a male relative were not allowed to board a Kam Air flight from Kabul to Islamabad on Friday,” a passenger who was on that flight told AFP.

The Taliban controls all airports in Afghanistan now. Picture: Wakil Kohsar/AFP

An Afghan woman with a US passport was also not allowed to board a flight to Dubai on Friday, another source said.

The Taliban had already banned inter-city road trips for women travelling alone, but until now they were free to take flights.

The latest restriction on women follows last week’s shutdown of all girls’ secondary schools just hours after they were allowed to reopen for the first time since the hard line Islamists seized power in August last year.

A Taliban fighter in Kabul. Picture: Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP

Since the Taliban’s return to power, many curbs on women’s freedoms have been reintroduced – often implemented locally at the whim of regional officials from the Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

The Taliban have promised a softer version of the harsh Islamist rule that characterised their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.

But since August, they have rolled back two decades of gains made by Afghanistan’s women.

Women have been squeezed out of most government jobs and secondary school education, as well as ordered to dress according to a strict interpretation of the Quran.

Tens of thousands of girls flocked back to class on Wednesday after schools reopened, but officials ordered them home just hours into the day, triggering international outrage.

Authorities have still not given a clear reason for the policy reversal.

– With AFP