Afghan women use social media to protest Taliban ban on their voices

Afghan women take to social media to post videos of themselves singing in protest of the ban Taliban of the female voice in public.

Our voice is not Aurat (private) and tempting, your eyes create temptations” or “my face is not temptation, your eyes create temptations,” these are parts of the proclamations sung by a dozen women on social media.

Afghan women use social media to protest

The women held up signs with the face of Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, blacked out and said these words.

The videos show women, both individually and in groups, claiming their right to express themselves and appear in public.

“The Taliban have taken away my voice, my face, my gaze and my presence. Come and be my voice for the last time and say: Women, life and freedom,” is part of a fragment.

The de facto Taliban government in Afghanistan recently passed a law requiring Afghan women to wear the veil, and condemns the public hearing of the female voice as an offence against modesty.

The law requires women to cover their faces and bodies to avoid “causing temptation,” and prohibits public noise or loud voices by women, including singing, reciting, or speaking into microphones.

Drivers are prohibited from transporting adult women without the accompaniment of a legal male guardian.

Since the Taliban came to power in August 2021, they have imposed a series of relentless prohibitions against women, pushing them increasingly into the private sphere, similar to what happened during their previous regime between 1996 and 2001.

Afghan women are restricted in their access to secondary and higher education, as well as in their ability to perform most jobs.

The Taliban apply these measures based on their interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law.

(With information from EFE)

Afghan women use social media to push back against Taliban ban

Afghan women are not allowed to sing, recite, or speak in front of microphones.

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