Tuesday, October 29, 2024 - The Taliban has banned women from hearing other women’s voices in its latest attempt to restrict women in Afghanistan.
In a voice message on Monday, October 28, the country’s
minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice announced the
bizarre new restriction on women’s behaviour.
Although precise details of the Taliban’s ruling are
unclear, Afghan human rights activists have warned it could mean
women are effectively banned from holding conversations with one another.
In his message, minister Khalid Hanafi said: “Even when an
adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly
enough for them 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.”
He said these are “new rules and will be gradually
implemented, and God will be helping us in each step we take”.
As the Taliban has banned living beings from being
shown on television, his message was delivered via voice recording instead of a
television broadcast.
“How are women who are the sole providers for their families
supposed to buy bread, seek medical care or simply exist if even
their voices are forbidden?” one activist said in response.
“Whatever he says is a form of mental torture for us,” an
Afghan woman in Kabul told The Telegraph.
“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.”
“They say we cannot hear other women’s voices, and I do not
understand where these views come from,” she added.
Since taking power in Aug 2021, the Taliban has
systematically restricted women’s rights in Afghanistan.
Women have already been ordered to cover their
faces “to avoid temptation and tempting others” and refrain from
speaking in the presence of unfamiliar men who are not husbands or close
relatives.
“If it is necessary for women to leave their homes, they
must cover their faces and voices from men” and be accompanied by a “male
guardian”, according to the rules approved by the Taliban’s supreme leader.
Afghan women have also been ordered not to speak
loudly inside their homes, to prevent their voices from being
heard outside.
Women who defy the new rules will be arrested and sent to
prison, the Taliban said.
The Taliban’s supreme leader has also vowed to
start stoning women to death in public.
“They [the Taliban] are waging an all-out war against us,
and we have no one in the world to hear our voices,” a former civil servant
told The Telegraph from Kabul.
“The world has abandoned us,” she added. “They left us to
the Taliban, and whatever happens to us now is a result of Western
government policies.”
“I feel depressed. The world is advancing in technology and
having fun with their lives, but here we cannot even hear each other’s voices,”
she said.
“They want us not to exist at all, and there’s nothing we
can do about it,” another woman in western Herat province said.
“They may succeed at some point, as many are taking their
lives due to the pressure,” she added
“They think ruling Afghanistan is only
about suppressing women – we didn’t commit a crime by being born as
women,” she said.
Below are some of the things the Taliban has said Afghan
women are not allowed to do:
1.Drive a car
2.Speak in public
3.Speak loudly inside your house
4. Travel alone
4. Own a smartphone
6. Wear bright clothes
7. Wear high-heels
8. Go to high school or university
9. Sing
10. Read the Quran aloud in public
11. Look at men they don’t know
12. Attend a protest
13. Go to the gym
14. Go to the park
15. Work in the civil service
16. Ride in a taxi
17. Go abroad
18. Show their faces in public
19. Speak to a male doctor
20. Play sport
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