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Summary
In growing Afghanistan women’s rights violations, the Taliban Minister of Virtue and Prevention Vice Khalid Hanafi has announced that women in Afghanistan are banned from speaking to one another.
In a drastic escalation of restrictions, the Taliban has banned women from speaking to one another or hearing each other’s voices, marking another step in its attempt to enforce a strict interpretation of Islamic law in Afghanistan.
Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban’s minister for the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice, announced this ruling in a lengthy voice message on Monday.
He declared it forbidden for adult women to let their voices be heard by other women, further tightening existing prohibitions against speaking and showing their faces in public. Hanafi specifically instructed that women should refrain from performing Takbir—an Islamic prayer—or reciting the Quran aloud in the presence of other women.
Although the specifics of this new ruling remain vague, Afghan human rights activists warn that it effectively bans women from engaging in conversations.
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.” He added, “How could they be allowed to sing if they aren’t even permitted to hear [each other’s] voices while praying, let alone for anything else?”
Hanafi claimed these “new rules” would be gradually implemented with divine assistance, suggesting that if women are prohibited from performing Takbir, they should certainly not be allowed to sing. Given the Taliban’s ban on broadcasting images of living beings on television, his message was delivered via voice recording rather than a televised address.
Prior to this latest ruling, Afghan women had already been instructed not to speak loudly within their homes to avoid being overheard outside. Women who defy these new restrictions face the threat of arrest and imprisonment. This harsh policy has sparked significant backlash regarding the ongoing erosion of women’s rights in Afghanistan.
An X user, @Iamthisnotthat1, questioned, “If they hate women this much, why not just ban women in general and expel them from the country, leaving only men?”
Another user, @Serena_Partrick, lamented, “They are creating Hell on Earth for women and girls.”
