Taliban enacts law that silences Afghan women in public

https://www.voanews.com/a/taliban-enact-law-that-silences-afghan-women-in-public-curbs-their-freedom/7753273.html

From Voices of America (VOA)




Taliban leaders in Afghanistan have ordered fresh limitations on women, forbidding them from singing, reciting poetry or speaking aloud in public and mandating them to keep their faces and bodies covered at all times.

The restrictions are part of a new so-called Vice and Virtue decree published by the Taliban's Justice Ministry on Wednesday after approval from their reclusive supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, said a ministry spokesman in a video message.


Human rights activists feared the latest restrictions underscore a significant increase in the Taliban's attempts to enforce their version of Islamic law, especially in suppressing and removing women from public life.

The fundamentalist Taliban have already barred Afghan girls ages 12 and older from attending school and many women from public and private sector jobs, including United Nations agencies. No country has officially recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, mainly over their harsh treatment of women.

A man sells stickers picturing Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada at market in Kabul on 26 December 2021. Photo by Mohd RASFAN/AFP