The "Taliban" Ministry of Virtue Propaganda and Prevention of Vice has banned adult women from speaking in the presence of other women.
This was reported by the Amu TV channel, which covers the public news of Afghanistan.
The head of the ministry Khalid Hanafi said that female residents of the country should refrain from reading the Islamic prayer takbir or the Koran aloud among other women. Hanafi was previously blacklisted by the UN, and he is also under EU sanctions.
The directive of the authorities caused outrage among Afghan women. Restrictions on their freedoms have increased despite requests to protect them from the countryʼs repressive policies. Midwife Samira from the city of Herat said that officials forbade meetings between medical workers and men accompanying female patients. And this limits their work.
"I have been working in clinics in remote areas for eight years, but in the last two months the surveillance by the Taliban has increased. They donʼt even allow us to speak at the checkpoints when we go to work. And in clinics they tell us not to discuss medical issues with male relatives," she added.
The Ministry of Virtue Propaganda also requires women to cover their bodies completely, including their faces. Human rights defenders and residents of the country condemned such "rules". They consider them an extension of misogynistic politics.
“How are women who are the sole breadwinners of their families supposed to buy bread, seek medical care or simply exist if even their voices are banned? These decisions bind women and make life difficult for all of us," says one of the activists.
The Talibanʼs Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Corruption is believed to be the force behind the groupʼs restrictive policies. The international community, the UN and human rights organizations sharply criticize the Talibanʼs systematic restriction of the rights of female citizens.
- After seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban began to gradually suppress womenʼs rights. Thus, the Taliban banned women from studying at universities, ordered private universities not to admit them to entrance exams, forbade women to work in non-governmental organizations, play sports, visit amusement parks, and drive in cars without a hijab. The country also closed beauty salons for women, banned women from visiting the Band-e-Amir National Park, and women who were subjected to violence are sent to prisons. Recently, the Taliban banned women from speaking in public.
- In March of this year, the supreme leader of the Taliban Mawlavi Hibatullah Akhundzada promised to start publicly stoning women to death as a sign of struggle against Western democracy.
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Author: Anastasiia Mohylevets