They film themselves singing, showing only a small part of their faces: dozens of Afghan women are taking part in an online protest against a new law banning women from using their voices in public.
The Taliban government announced last week that it would enact a law in late July to “promote virtue and prevent vice,” in accordance with Sharia (Islamic law).
This law contains 35 articles with a series of obligations, particularly regarding clothing, and prohibitions for women, including that of singing or reciting poetry in public.
In response, Afghan women inside the country and abroad have posted videos of themselves singing on social media, with captions such as “my voice is not banned” and “no to the Taliban.”
Identify
In one such video, reportedly filmed in Afghanistan itself, a woman sings dressed in black from head to toe, a long veil covering her face.
“You have silenced me for years to come,” she says, “you have imprisoned me in my home for the sole crime of being a woman.”
Groups of women activists have posted videos of themselves raising their fists or tearing up pictures of the Taliban’s supreme leader, Emir Hibatullah Akhundzada, who rules Afghanistan by decree from his stronghold in Kandahar in the south of the country.
“A woman’s voice is the voice of justice,” chants a group of activists in another video.
On X, Taiba Sulaimani sings while adjusting her veil in front of a mirror: “a woman’s voice is her identity, not something that should be hidden.”
Cover your face, body and voice
The new law states that women cannot sing or recite verses aloud in public or allow their voices to pass beyond the walls of their homes.
“When an adult woman has to leave her house out of necessity, she is required to cover her face, body and voice,” the law states, using the Islamic legal term “‘awra” for the parts of the human body that are to be hidden.
Women and men are not allowed to look at members of the opposite sex other than close relatives and taxi drivers are not allowed to transport women traveling without a “mahram” (chaperone, a male relative).
The UN, human rights groups and Afghans have expressed concern about the law, some provisions of which have already been in force informally since the Taliban seized power in August 2021.
Taliban officials said Monday that the new law would be implemented “gently.”