In yet another blow to the freedoms and rights of Afghan women, Taliban has banned them from “hearing each other’s voice”, as reported by Afghan news channel, Amu TV. As per Taliban’s new decree, Afghan women cannot pray aloud in the presence of each other as for Taliban their voice is “awrah”, one that must be concealed. In simple words, it should not be heard in public, even by other women. Taliban has also barred women from singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public as they consider their voice as intimate.
Notably, Amu TV is a Virginia-based Afghan news channel. According to the news channel, Taliban Minister Mohammad Khalid Hanafi issued this regressive decree. Ironically, Hanafi is Taliban’s Minister for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice (PVPV).
As per the report, Hanafi asserted women should avoid reciting the Quran aloud when around other women. He brazened it out saying, “When women are not allowed to call takbir or azaan (the Islamic call to prayer), they certainly cannot sing songs or enjoy music.”
According to the Talibani Minister, a woman’s voice is considered Awrah and it should not be heard in public. Currently, Taliban has applied this bizarre decree only on prayers but there is an imminent fear that it could have larger ramifications for the Afghan women and their already curtailed rights and freedoms.
Under Taliban rule, Afghan women are prohibited from speaking in public. It has only allowed Female Healthcare workers to work outside their homes and in all other fields female participation outside their home is barred. However, in a tragic irony, the so-called Taliban government has curtailed rights even for this exempted community. Strikingly, the female healthcare workers cannot speak to male relatives.
Speaking with Amu TV, a Herat-based midwife said, “They don’t even allow us to speak at checkpoints on our way to work, and in clinics, we are instructed not to discuss medical issues with male relatives.”
The decree prohibiting women from hearing each other’s voices is the latest in a series of draconian measures imposed on women in the Taliban regime ever since the terrorist group stormed to power in 2021.
Earlier in August, the “Taliban government” introduced a rule that mandated women to fully cover their body, including faces, when they step outside of their houses.
Furthermore, it has also imposed a ban on showing images of “living things”. Speaking with news agency AFP, several Afghan journalists stated that the morality ministry is gradually introducing a ban on images of living beings – humans and animals – in the media.
As per reports, since mid-October, the Talibani Ministry, PVPV, has held meetings with journalists in one province after another to “inform” them that publishing images of living things is banned and it will be gradually implemented under a recent “vice and virtue” law.
During the previous regime from 1996 to 2001, Taliban had imposed a blanket ban on Television which it has not yet imposed since their return three years ago.
Even in the Islamic world which is notorious for curbing women’s rights, Afghanistan has become the only Muslim-majority country to impose such bizarre and draconian bans.
Here is a list of some regressive measures put in place by the “Taliban government” –
Under the provisions of Article 13, women are required to –
- cover their bodies when they step outside of their homes
- Mandatory face coverings so that Talibani men don’t get temptations
- They can’t wear clothing that is thin, tight, or short
- They must cover themselves in the presence of non-Muslim males and females
- They are prohibited from looking at unknown men and vice versa
Furthermore, under Article 17, Taliban has imposed the aforementioned ban on the publication of images of living beings.
Under Article 19, they have prohibited —
- Music
- Transportation of solo female travellers
- Mingling of unrelated men and women
