Taliban has announced a new ban prohibiting women from hearing other women’s voices.
This latest restriction is meant to enforce a hardline interpretation of Islamic law, and has sparked widespread concern and outrage among Afghan human rights activists.
Minister for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Khalid Hanafi, delivered the announcement via voice message, citing that women should not pray loudly enough for others to hear.
“How could they be allowed to sing if they aren’t even permitted to hear each other’s voices while praying, let alone for anything else?” Hanafi stated.
Afghan women have already faced severe restrictions since the Taliban took power in August 2021. They are required to cover their faces, refrain from speaking in the presence of unfamiliar men, and cannot travel without a male guardian. The new rule effectively bans women from holding conversations with one another.
Human rights activists have condemned the move, expressing the negative impact on women who are sole providers for their families.
“How are women supposed to buy bread, seek medical care, or simply exist if even their voices are forbidden?” one activist asked.
“Living in Afghanistan is incredibly painful for us as women. Afghanistan is forgotten, and that’s why they are suppressing us – they are torturing us on a daily basis,” a woman in Kabul told The Telegraph.
The Taliban’s supreme leader has also vowed to reinstate public stoning of women.
“They are waging an all-out war against us, and we have no one in the world to hear our voices,” a former civil servant said.
The international community has been criticized for abandoning Afghan women. “The world has abandoned us. They left us to the Taliban, and whatever happens to us now is a result of Western government policies,” the former civil servant added.
Even within the Taliban’s ranks, moderates are reportedly frustrated with this new declaration.
A senior Taliban official expressed concerns that the leadership’s actions could lead to widespread revolt and international intervention.
