Protestors Monday attacked the Iranian consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, hurling stones, smashing security cameras, and burning tires before they were dispersed by Taliban security.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh called on Taliban officials to ensure the security of Iran’s embassy in Kabul and its missions across Afghanistan. He warned of efforts on social media to whip up anti-Iranian sentiment over alleged mistreatment of Afghan immigrants in Iran.
Sectarian tensions have risen since last week’s killing of two Shia clerics in Imam Reza shrine, Mashhad, attributed to Sunni extremists. Many Afghans are in Iran unofficially, with numbers increasing since the Taliban took Kabul last year as the United States ended its 20-year military presence.
A conservative newspaper in Tehran claimed Thursday that 8 million Afghans were in Iran, and that the Mashhad knife attack reflected Iranian authorities’ lax approach in allowing violent extremists amid refugees. Jomhuri Eslami reminded readers of the Taliban’s past anti-Shia animosity and said there was no difference between the group and Isis-Daesh, the Islamic State group.
Earlier on Monday, demonstrators outside Iran’s embassy in Kabul held banners with pictures of refugees and the words "Isn't Afghan a human being?"
Ambassador Bahador Aminian met in recent days with Afghan acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and former president Hamid Karzai, presumably to further Iran’s hopes of a broad-based government.
Confirming the plans, Mohammad Aghamiri told Didehban-e Iran website on Saturday that there are "men who are not family members and young [unmarried] men" in parks so it is to women's own benefit to keep men out from where they play with their children. He also claimed that creation of a separate area for women and their children was based on "popular demand".
Those who advocate allocation of a different section of parks and other public areas such as playgrounds to women claim that this will help guard women's privacy and separation from men according to Islamic values.
Limitations for women have always existed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution under the pretext of protecting them, Niki Mahjoub, journalist, told Iran International TV, adding that segregation laws have steadily increased, particularly in the past few years.
Some fear that religious hardliners might be aiming at more segregation in parks and other public places.
Addressing a Tehran City Council meeting on Sunday, Aghamiri claimed that Didehban-e Iran had misrepresented his remarks and that he had not meant complete segregation of parks but meant only allocation of a special place for women and their children to play together.
He insisted that the plan ensures "women's safety" and giving them peace of mind that their children would not be "abducted". He went on to claim that women are far less likely to abduct children than men.
"There are special parks for children in all countries but now that this is being done in Tehran those who are hostile [to Islamic values] are painting a dark picture and saying parks are going to be segregated," he said.
Aghamiri added that mother and child parks will help make families happier and healthier. "Men are at work during the day. Mothers who have more free time can go to these parks and spend time with their children," he said.
Tehran has over 2,500 large and small parks and neighborhood playgrounds including nine parks that are for women only. Aghamiri said on Sunday that the number of all-female parks is going to increase to forty soon.
The first of all-female parks opened in Tehran was inaugurated by the city's conservative mayor, Mohammad Ghalibaf, in 2008. Some women at the time welcomed the idea because in this park they did not have to wear the compulsory hijab and could dress or exercise as they wished, as even gardeners were female. Others, however, said they feared this was a prelude to greater gender segregation in the city.
Since 2008 all-female parks have also been established in other cities and towns.
On Saturday a video was posted on social media showing tall concrete walls built around a park by the municipality in Bojnord in northern Iran. The mayor of Bojonord has said that the walls have been built not to segregate men and women, but to provide "a safe space" for women.
The Islamic Republic enforces complete segregation of men and women in many public spaces including schools, public transportation, gyms, swimming pools, and beaches. Women are allowed at some athletic events such as volleyball games, in a separate part of the stadium, but unofficially banned from others such as football stadiums, men's wrestling competitions and boxing matches.
