San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
TALIBAN BLOCK WOMEN’S TRAVEL
Officials say dozens of unaccompanied women have not been allowed to board flights
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers refused to allow dozens of women to board several flights, including some overseas, because they were traveling without a male guardian, two Afghan airline officials said Saturday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions from the Taliban, said dozens of women who arrived at Kabul’s international airport Friday to board domestic and international flights were told they couldn’t do so without a male guardian.
Some of the women were dual nationals returning to their homes overseas, including some from Canada, according to one of the officials. Women were denied boarding on flights to Islamabad, Dubai and Turkey on Kam Air and the state-owned Ariana Airline, said the officials.
The order came from the Taliban leadership, said one official.
By Saturday, some women traveling alone were given permission to board an Ariana Airlines flight to western Herat province, the official said. However, by the time the permission was granted they had missed their flight, he said.
The airport’s president and police chief, both from the Taliban movement and both Islamic clerics, were meeting Saturday with airline officials.
“They are trying to solve it,” the official said.
It was still unclear whether the Taliban would exempt air travel from an order issued months ago requiring women traveling more than 45 miles to be accompanied by a male relative.
Taliban officials contacted by The Associated Press did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Since taking power last August, the Taliban leadership have been squabbling among themselves as they struggle to transition from war to governing. It has pit hard-liners — like acting Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund, who is deeply rooted in the old guard — against the more pragmatic among them, like Sirajuddin Haqqani. He took over leadership of the powerful Haqqani network from his father Jalaluddin Haqanni. The elder Haqqani, who died several years ago, is from Akhund’s generation, who ruled Afghanistan under the strict and unchallenged leadership of Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Infuriating many Afghans is the knowledge that many of the Taliban of the younger generation, like Sirajuddin Haqqani, are educating their girls in Pakistan, while in Afghanistan women and girls have been targeted by their repressive edicts since taking power.
This latest assault on women’s rights in Talibanrun Afghanistan denying women air travel, comes just days after the all-male religiously driven government broke its promise to allow girls to attend school beyond the sixth grade.