Afghan women “forbidden from listening to each other” under the Taliban’s bizarre new rule

The Taliban in Afghanistan have implemented a bizarre new edict that will do just that further restrict women’s voices who have already been banned from speaking publicly.

Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, Taliban Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vicedeclared that women must refrain from reciting the Quran loudly in the presence of other women, according to Amu TV, an Afghan news channel based in Virginia, US.

“When women are not allowed to call takbir Or athan (Islamic call to prayer), certainly can’t sing songs or musiche said in Saturday’s remarks.

“Even when an adult woman is praying and another woman is passing by, she cannot pray loud enough for them to hear… How can they be allowed to sing when they are not even allowed to hear (each other’s) voices while praying? let alone anything else,” Hanafi also said Daily Telegraph..

The woman’s voice is taken into account oh, that is, something that must be covered and should not be heard in public, even by other women, added the minister.

Women, including human rights experts, fear that this dictate will go beyond prayer and limit their ability to talk to each other, which will further limit their social presence.

It just comes two months after the Taliban in August it introduced a new set of rules that also required women to cover their entire bodies, including their faces, when going out.

Midwife w Herat told Amu TV that Taliban officials forbid female health workers – the last of the Afghan women allowed to work outside the home – from talking, especially to male relatives. “They don’t even let us talk at checkpoints when we go to work. And in clinics we are told that we should not discuss medical matters with male relatives,” a midwife who has been working in remote clinics for eight years told the station.

It’s unclear whether the latest rule has been implemented and how widely.

Since returning to power in 2021 after the overthrow of the NATO-backed Taliban, they have increasingly restricted women’s rights, even banning them from formal education.

Hanifi’s latest remarks sparked fury on social media.

“After banning women’s voices in public placesThe Taliban Ministry of Vice and Virtue banned women from talking to each other. “I have no words to express my utter fury and disgust at the Taliban’s mistreatment of women,” said journalist Lina Rozbih. “The world must do something! Help millions of voiceless and helpless women Afghanistan“

“This transcends misogyny,” said Nazifa Haqpal, a former Afghan diplomat. “This is an example of an extreme level of control and absurdity,” she said.

Zubaida Akbar, a human rights and civil society activist from Afghanistan, called for the Taliban leadership to be held accountable for its the dictate of “gender apartheid.” “Today’s ban on women speaking in front of others comes from Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban Minister of Vice and Virtue, who last month published a more than 100-page collection of edicts against women,” she said on Twitter/X.

“Every ban imposed on women has its face and must be held accountable for gender apartheid,” she said.