The Taliban has now implemented a new measure banning women in Afghanistan from hearing one another during prayers, further restricting their freedom.

As stated on Amu TV, a Virginia-based Afghan news channel, the order was given by Mohammad Khalid Hanafi—the Taliban minister of the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice.

This rule comes just two months after the militant movement banned women’s voices from public spaces entirely.

Afghan women’s voices are not to be heard during prayer, according to a new rule implemented by the Taliban

Image credits: Nava Jamshidi / Getty

During his message, Hanafi stated, “Even when an adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly enough for them to hear.”

The Telegraph reported that Hanafi sees a woman’s voice as “awrah”—something that must be concealed—which means it should not be heard in public, even by other women.

Image credits: David Turnley / Getty

He said these are “new rules and will be gradually implemented, and God will be helping us in each step we take.”

The group threatened that any woman who broke the rules would be arrested and sent to prison. 

The current directive only applies to prayers, but experts have raised concerns about its broader implications, further limiting a woman’s ability to speak freely.

Women in Afghanistan have faced numerous restrictions on their freedom since the Taliban took control

Image credits: Callum Darragh / Flickr

Since the Taliban seized control of the nation in 2021, it has consistently worked to strip away the rights of women and has released more than 70 decrees and statements outlining what women can or cannot do, as reported by Daily Mail.

These rules include—but are not limited to—forbidding women from going to high school or university, attending a protest, playing a sport, owning a smartphone, singing, going abroad, driving a car, or traveling alone.

Image credits: Anadolu / Getty

Additionally, women are not allowed to speak while unfamiliar men—who aren’t husbands or close relatives—are present, must cover their faces “to avoid temptation and tempting others,” and cannot talk loudly in their own homes.

The Taliban also issued a mandate forbidding the media from displaying images of any living beings, such as humans or animals. 

Though these women have been silenced, some have spoken out regarding the despair they feel

Image credits: Callum Darragh / Flickr

These isolating restrictions have reportedly caused suicide rates among women to skyrocket.

One Afghan woman from Herat said, “They want us not to exist at all.”

Image credits: Nava Jamshidi / Getty

A midwife from the same city stated that even female healthcare workers—the last of the Afghan women able to work outside their homes—are not exempt from the restrictions on talking.

“They don’t even allow us to speak at checkpoints when we go to work,” she said. “And in the clinics, we are told not to discuss medical matters with male relatives.”

Image credits: Paula Bronstein / Getty

Nazifa Haqpal, a former Afghan diplomat, stated, “It exemplifies an extreme level of control and absurdity.”

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