The Taliban in Afghanistan bans women from speaking in public and are not allowed to look directly at men they are not related to by blood or marriage
The Taliban in Afghanistan recently introduced strict new "vice and virtue" laws that require women to cover their entire bodies, including their faces, whenever they are in public. These rules also banned women from having their voices heard in public, claiming that a woman’s voice could lead to immoral behavior.
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| Women are banned from speaking in public (AP/File) |
The Taliban label women’s voices as aurat, a term in Islamic law that refers to intimate parts that must be concealed. By reducing women’s voices and bodies to objects of sin, these laws further diminish women’s autonomy and presence in society.
When the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in 2021, there was hope among some that they might adopt a more moderate approach, especially toward women’s rights. However, the Taliban quickly resumed the same oppressive practices that defined their rule from 1996 to 2001, which had been marked by repression, public executions, and brutal punishments.
Since 2021, the Taliban have consistently imposed severe restrictions on women, declining their autonomy on all fronts. Girls have been banned from attending school beyond the sixth grade, and women have been prohibited from many types of employment and from participating in public life. The new laws, which force women to cover themselves completely and silence their voices in public, show the Taliban’s course to strip women of their autonomy.
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| Afghan women protesting for their right to education, in Mazar-i-Sharif on August 12, 2023. Atef Aryan/AFP/Getty Images |
Despite these harsh restrictions, some Afghan women have courageously resisted. Many women inside Afghanistan have defied the bans by posting videos of themselves singing. Outside the country, women have gathered in parks to sing songs of freedom and resistance, insisting that the voices of Afghan women cannot be silenced.
Human rights organizations and the United Nations have condemned the Taliban’s new laws, describing them as a further decline of women's rights.
The new laws, imposed by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, require women to wear thick, full-body coverings at all times to prevent men from being tempted. Also, women are forbidden from having their voices heard in public, as they are considered a potential source of moral corruption.
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| Two Afghan women were beaten up by the Taliban rebels in northern Sar-e-Pul province for being out of homes without male partners in 2020 |
The laws state that women must conceal their bodies, faces, and voices whenever they leave their homes. Men are also required to cover their bodies from their navels to their knees in public. Furthermore, women are not allowed to look directly at men they are not related to by blood or marriage, and taxi drivers face punishment if they transport a woman without a male escort.
Women who do not comply with these laws risk detention and punishment at the discretion of Taliban officials. These restrictions have drawn criticism from Roza Otunbayeva, the United Nations' special representative for Afghanistan, who described them as an extension of the already "intolerable" conditions for women and girls in Afghanistan. She expressed concerns about the broad powers given to moral inspectors, who can detain anyone based on vaguely defined violations of these laws.
Afghan lawyer Mir Abdul Wahid Sadat criticized the laws as being legally flawed, arguing that they violate both Afghanistan’s domestic laws and international legal obligations. He said that under Islamic law, virtue should not be enforced through oppression. Sadat added that the new rules violates the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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| Public flogging event by Taliban in Parwan province. Dec. 2022. |
Afghan human rights activist Fawzia Koofi, the first female vice-president of Afghanistan’s parliament, condemned the Taliban’s policies as acts of hatred against women. She expressed concern over the lack of strong global reactions, saying that the international community’s silence has emboldened the Taliban. Koofi said that these restrictions are not only targeting women but attacking all human beings, and she called for the Taliban to be held accountable.
Shukria Barakzai, a former Afghan parliamentarian and ambassador to Norway, also criticized the international community for failing to stand up to the Taliban’s oppression of Afghanistan’s 14 million women and girls. She accused organizations like the United Nations and the European Union of attempting to normalize relations with the Taliban, despite their human rights abuses.
Since regaining control of Afghanistan, the Taliban have enforced what many human rights organizations call "gender apartheid." Women have been systematically excluded from education, employment, and public life, and denied access to the justice system.
In addition to these new restrictions, the Taliban have reintroduced public flogging, with reports suggesting that stoning for adultery may also return, further tightening their oppressive policies.