The Taliban has banned women from hearing other women’s voices, in its latest bid to control and subjugate an entire gender in Afghanistan.
Announced on Monday, the new rule is feared to mean that women will now no longer be able to talk to each other.
Afghanistan’s minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, Khalid Hanafi said: “Even when an adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly enough for them to hear.”
“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.”
He said these are “new rules and will be gradually implemented, and God will be helping us in each step we take.”
Any woman who dares to break the new rules will be arrested and sent to prison, the terror group said.
Since the terror group took control of the nation in August 2021, after the US’ heavily criticised exit, the Taliban has worked to strip away women’s rights.
According to the UN, more than 70 decrees, directives, statements, and systemised practices have targeted what women can and can’t do.
Women have already been banned from speaking loudly in their own homes, and are not allowed to be heard outside.
Women are also ordered to cover their faces ‘to avoid temptation and tempting others’, and are banned from speaking if unfamiliar men who aren’t husbands or close relatives, are present.
“If it is necessary for women to leave their homes, they must cover their faces and voices from men’ and be accompanied by a ‘male guardian’, according to the rules approved by the Taliban’s supreme leader.
One former Afghan civil servant told the Telegraph of her despondency.
“They [the Taliban] are waging an all-out war against us, and we have no one in the world to hear our voices.
“The world has abandoned us. They left us to the Taliban, and whatever happens to us now is a result of Western government policies.
“I feel depressed. The world is advancing in technology and having fun with their lives, but here we cannot even hear each other’s voice.”
Another woman told the newspaper: “They want us not to exist at all, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
“They may succeed at some point, as many are taking their lives due to the pressure.
“They think ruling Afghanistan is only about suppressing women– we didn’t commit a crime by being born as women.”
The UN reported that just 1% of women believe they have influence in their communities, and that just nearly one in 10 women knows another who has tried to commit suicide since the Taliban took over.
On top of this, nearly one in five women said they hadn’t spoken to another woman outside of their immediate family in three months.
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