Taliban bans Afghan women from flying without male relative

KABUL • The Taliban has ordered airlines in Afghanistan to stop women from boarding flights unless accompanied by a male relative, aviation officials have said.

The latest curb 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 hardline Islamists seized power in August.

Two officials from Afghanistan's Ariana Afghan airline and Kam Air said late on Sunday that the Taliban had ordered them to stop boarding lone women travellers.

The decision was taken after a meeting on Thursday between representatives of the Taliban, the two airlines and airport immigration authorities, the officials told AFP, asking not to be named.

Because of the decision, the United States abruptly cancelled meetings with the Taliban in Doha that were set to address key economic issues, US officials said on Friday. The United Nations Security Council asked Ms Deborah Lyons, the UN Special Representative for Afghanistan, to engage with relevant Afghan authorities and stakeholders on the issue.

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 ministry said it had not issued any directive banning women from flying alone. But a letter issued by a senior official of Ariana Afghan to the airline's staff after the meeting with the Taliban confirmed the new measure.

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

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

But since August, it has 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.

The Taliban appears to have also set its sights on local media networks, which flourished under the previous US-backed regimes.

Yesterday, Taliban intelligence agents raided four radio stations in Kandahar and detained six journalists, sources said. The raids come a day after the authorities ordered the BBC's television partners in Afghanistan to stop broadcasting its news bulletins.

"Since the foreign TV channels are broadcast from abroad, the Islamic Emirate has no access to control their contents, especially when it comes to journalists' uniforms and dresses," said a government spokesman.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS