The Taliban has banned families and women from accessing restaurants with gardens or green spaces in the northwestern province of Herat, Afghanistan.
A government official said the decision was made after complaints from religious scholars and others about the mixing of genres in such places.
The Onet website writes it quoting the Ap.
The decision is the latest in a series of restrictions imposed by the Taliban since they took power in August 2021. Girls have been barred from school and universities, from most types of employment, including jobs at the United Nations .
They are also banned from public spaces such as parks and gyms.
Authorities say restrictions are in place because of gender mixing or because women allegedly don't wear the hijab, or Islamic headscarf, properly.
The ban on eating outdoors applies only to Herat establishments, which however remain open to men.
Baz Mohammad Nazir, a deputy directorate official at the Ministry of Vice and Virtue in Herat, denied media reports that all restaurants were banned for families and women, dismissing them as propaganda.
Azizurrahman Al Muhajir, directorate head of the Ministry of Vice and Virtue in Herat, said: 'Restaurants with open spaces are like parks but they used to call them restaurants and men and women were all together. Thank God it has now been corrected. Furthermore,