The Taliban has now implemented a new measure banning women in Afghanistan from hearing one another during prayers, further restricting their freedom.
As stated in Amu TV, a Virginia-based Afghan news channel, the order was given by Mohammad Khalid Hanafi — Taliban minister for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice.
This rule comes just two months after the militant movement banned women’s voices from public spaces entirely.
Afghan women’s voices are not to be heard during prayer, according to a new rule implemented by the Taliban
Image credits: Nava Jamshidi / Getty
In his message, Hanafi stated, “Even when an adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly enough for them to hear.”
The Telegraph reported that Hanafi sees a woman’s voice as “awrah” — something that must be concealed — which means it should not be heard in public, even by other women.
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He said these are “new rules and will be gradually implemented, and God will be helping us in each step we take.”
The group threatened that any woman who breaks the rules will be arrested and sent to prison.
This current directive only applies to prayers, but experts have raised concerns about its broader implications which further limit a woman’s ability to speak freely.
The women in Afghanistan have had to face numerous restrictions imposing on their freedom ever since the Taliban took control
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When the Taliban seized control of the nation back in 2021, the group has consistently worked to strip away the rights of women and have put out more than 70 decrees and statements, outlining what women can or cannot do, as reported by Daily Mail.
These rules include, but are not limited to, forbidding women from going to high school or university, attending a protest, playing a sport, owning a smartphone, singing, going abroad, driving a car, and traveling alone.
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Additionally, women are not allowed to speak if unfamiliar men who aren’t husbands or close relatives are present, must cover their faces “to avoid temptation and tempting others,” and cannot talk loudly in their own homes.
The Taliban has also issued a mandate that forbids the media from displaying any images of living beings, such as humans or animals.
Though these women have been silenced, some have still spoken out regarding the despair they feel
Image credits: Callum Darragh / Flickr
These isolating restrictions have reportedly caused suicide rates in women to skyrocket.
One Afghan woman from Herat said, “They want us not to exist at all.”
Image credits: Nava Jamshidi / Getty
A midwife, also from the same city, stated that even female healthcare workers — the last of the Afghan women able to work outside their homes — are not exempt from the restrictions around talking.
“They don’t even allow us to speak at checkpoints when we go to work,” she said. “And in the clinics, we are told not to discuss medical matters with male relatives.”
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Nazifa Haqpal, a former Afghan diplomat, stated, “It exemplifies an extreme level of control and absurdity.”
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