There is no peace for them women in Afghanistanwhere the Taliban government recently introduced a new ban which imposes further restrictions on themenforcing a law that further limits their presence and freedom of expression in public.
In this case, women were forbidden to make your voice heardeven in the presence of other women. Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, announced the rule, stressing that women they must avoid reciting the Quran or making prayers aloud.
According to Hanafi, if women are not allowed to call the Takbir or the Athan (the call to prayer), . Female voices are now considered “awrah”, i.e to hide and can only be heard in circumstances of strict necessity.
The new regulation not only prevents women from expressing their faith out loud, but also forces them to cover every part of the bodyincluding the face, in every public situation. Furthermore, there are further obligations for drivers and other citizens, who are required to eavoid transporting women without hijabs, playing music, or allowing women to interact with men outside the family.
Many prohibitions imposed on women, a real “gender apartheid”
Activists and human rights organizations have expressed strong disappointment, describing the measures as “gender apartheid”, while Afghan public and diplomatic figures have denounced an attitude of exasperated control that cancels out any possibility of social life for Afghan women.
But as mentioned, these are not the only prohibitions imposed on women. These directives are in fact part of a context of growing limitations on women’s rights, worsening an already extremely difficult situation for them, whose freedoms have been drastically reduced since the Taliban came to power in August 2021.
Today, Afghan women do not attend schools or public places such as gyms and parks, nor do they play sports. Even carrying out daily tasks such as purchasing goods or meeting with friends is extremely complicated for them.
The international community considers these regulations an open violation of human rights. The exclusion of women from public life represents a step back decades and places Afghanistan in a situation of increasing repression.
The rise to power of the Taliban has led the country towards a series of restrictions that are pushing Afghan women into a condition of isolation and deprivationthreatening every aspect of their existence and even limiting their right to speak and pray.
Human rights organizations continue to call for the world to intervene, but so far calls to stop these violations have had little effect on the Taliban government. But we to this escalation of unjustified and unjustifiable violence.
