AFP, Kabul

The Taliban have banned Afghan women from entering the capital’s public parks and funfairs, just months after ordering access to be segregated by gender. The new rule, introduced this week, further squeezes women out of an ever-shrinking public space that already sees them banned from traveling without a male escort and forced to wear a hijab or burqa whenever out of the home. “For the past 15 months, we tried our best to arrange and sort it out -- and even specified the days,” said Akif Sadeq Mohajir, spokesman for Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue.