Kabul, Afghanistan – The Taliban government in Afghanistan has imposed severe new restrictions on women’s public presence, barring them from allowing their voices to be heard by other women.
Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban’s Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, announced that adult women are now prohibited from publicly reciting prayers or reading from the Quran, among other limitations.
Further regulations bar female healthcare workers from interacting with the male companions of their patients, affecting medical care accessibility and raising concerns among health professionals.
“I’ve worked in remote clinics for eight years, but Taliban scrutiny has become relentless in the past two months,” said Samira, a midwife from Herat. “At checkpoints, we’re told not to speak, and inside clinics, we’re restricted from discussing cases with male relatives of patients.”
The Taliban’s broader set of policies, introduced in August, bans women from reading or singing in public, mandates that they veil their faces and bodies, and only wear loose-fitting clothing.
Women are also instructed to avoid direct eye contact with men with whom they are not related. Men, in turn, face a reciprocal rule forbidding them from looking at unrelated women.
Afghan women’s rights activists argue these policies are stripping away basic freedoms, including the ability to move, work, and communicate openly.
“How are women who are the sole providers for their families supposed to buy food, seek medical care, or even just exist if their voices are forbidden?” asked one activist, highlighting the profound effect on women’s daily lives.
In a July report, the United Nations noted that such policies have fostered a climate of fear among women and girls across Afghanistan.
The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, reinstated by the Taliban after they regained power in 2021, recently expanded its enforcement powers, now overseeing arrests and punishments for those seen violating these rules.
The ministry also recently banned visual depictions of living beings, extending even to official broadcasts, confirmed spokesman Saif ul Islam Khyber.
So far, Taliban-controlled media in the provinces of Takhar, Maidan Wardak, and Kandahar have complied with the directive, intensifying concerns over the future of Afghan media and press freedom under Taliban rule.
