Afghan women sing protest against ban on their voices

Our voices calling for our rights will never be silenced, says a protester

By AFP

Published: Wed 28 Aug 2024, 5:20 PM

Last updated: Wed 28 Aug 2024, 5:22 PM

An Afghan woman sings in a video showing just a sliver of her face, one of dozens of women taking part in an online protest against a law that bans women from raising their voices in public.

Taliban authorities last week announced the law, which includes rules that women's faces, bodies and voices should be "covered" outside the home, among 35 articles dictating behaviour and lifestyle.

In response, Afghan women inside and outside the country have posted videos on social media of them singing, along with hashtags such as "My voice is not forbidden" and "No to Taliban".

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Former policewoman Zala Zazai, who currently lives in Poland, shared a video of herself singing a song by well-known artist Aryana Sayeed about the resilience of Afghan women.

She said the restrictions on Afghan women were "unacceptable".

"Afghan women have come to understand that misogynists can no longer deny our human rights in the name of religion and culture. And our voices calling for our rights will never be silenced," she said.

In another video, reportedly shot inside Afghanistan, a woman is shown singing while dressed head to toe in black, with a long veil over her face.

"You have silenced my voice for the foreseeable future...you have imprisoned me in my home for the crime of being a woman," she says.

Groups of women activists posted videos raising their fists or tearing photos of the Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who rules by decree from the southern city of Kandahar.

"A woman's voice is the voice of justice," an activist group chants in another video.

The law on the "Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" formalises many rules already in place since the Taliban swept to power in 2021, implementing a strict interpretation of Islamic law Shariah.

It says women must not sing or recite aloud in public or let their voices carry beyond the walls of their homes.

"When an adult woman has to leave her home out of necessity, she is required to cover her face, body and voice," it says.

Chief Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has said criticism of the law exposes "arrogance" and misunderstanding of Shariah.

Women have borne the brunt of restrictions, including on access to education, public spaces and certain jobs, that the United Nations has labelled "gender apartheid".

The UN and other international bodies have condemned the new law, saying it further squeezes women's rights.

On Tuesday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the law to be repealed, calling it "utterly intolerable".

The law "cements policies that completely erase women's presence in public -- silencing their voices, and depriving them of their individual autonomy, effectively attempting to render them into faceless, voiceless shadows", said spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani.