After the right to speak in public, Afghan women lose the right to “hear the voices of other women”

In Afghanistan, women’s rights continue to decline. While, at the end of August 2024, the Taliban prohibited them among other things, to speak in publictheir voice is now even more sealed by a new decree.

An article from The Independent we learn that Sheikh Muhammad Khalid Hanafi, Taliban Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and the Repression of Vice, announced Monday October 28 that women must henceforth refrain from praying out loud and singing in this context, so that no one can hear the voices of the others.

In comments reported by Amu TV, an independent Afghan television channel based in Virginia (United States), the Taliban minister stated that “if women are not allowed to recite takbir and athan (two Islamic prayers, editor’s note) between themthey can even less sing or make music”. Words specified in The Telegraph: “When a woman prays and another passes by her side, she must not pray out loud and she must not make herself heard (…). How could they be allowed to sing if they are not allowed to hear (other women’s) voices during prayer?

“This illustrates the level of extreme control and absurdity of the Taliban”

In Afghanistan, under the Taliban regime, a woman’s voice is considered hourthat is to say that she must be covered, in addition to her entire body. She must not be heard in public, even by other women. This decision comes only two months after the Taliban promulgated a series of rules for women, including that of covering their entire body when they go out, including their faces.

A midwife from the western Afghan city of Herat told Amu TV that the Taliban is banning those working in health care – the last Afghan women allowed to work outside their homes ) to talk, especially to men. She confides: “They don’t even allow us to talk at checkpoints when we go to work. In clinics, we are forbidden from discussing any medical issues with men.”

If the implementation of this new rule and the context in which it was promulgated are still unclear, the latest statements by Sheikh Muhammad Khalid Hanafi have caused fury on social networks. Journalist Lina Rozbih writes: “After banning women from speaking in public, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Suppression of Vice forbids them from speaking among themselves. Words fail me to express my rage and disgust at the mistreatment of women. by the Taliban.»

For former Afghan diplomat Nazifa Haqpal, “this goes beyond misogyny and illustrates the level of control extreme and absurdity of the Taliban”. An Afghan human rights activist, Zubaida Akbar, calls for the leaders to be punished. She writes on X (formerly Twitter): “Every ban on women comes from a man, and every man must be held accountable for the gender apartheid currently taking place in Afghanistan.” There is little chance that the Taliban will hear these voices.