Sunday, December 26th, 2021
Music forbidden while driving
Taliban force women to wear hijab in cars
When the Taliban seize power in Afghanistan again, they assert that they want to respect women’s rights. But now they are intervening in another area to reprimand women in public. In future, they will only be allowed to be taken into the car with a full veil.
In Afghanistan, the ruling militant Islamist Taliban have ordered drivers not to play music in their vehicles. They also ordered restrictions on women being taken as passengers. Women without an Islamic hijab should not be taken, as stated in a letter from the Ministry for the Preservation of Virtue and Suppression of Vice Distributed to Motorists.
The Ministry’s spokesman, Mohammed Sadik Asif, confirmed the directive. How exactly the hijab should look like is not clear from the arrangement. As a rule, the Taliban do not understand this to mean covering the hair and neck, but rather a cloak from head to toe. The directive also required drivers not to take women with them who wanted to travel more than 45 miles (approximately 72 kilometers) without a male companion.
Beards instead of soap operas
In the letter, which also circulated on social media, drivers were instructed, among other things, to take breaks to pray. You should advise people to grow beards, it said. The guideline follows weeks after the ministry asked Afghan television stations to stop showing dramas and soap operas with female actors. The ministry had also asked television journalists to wear hijabs when they appear.
The Islamists have noticeably curtailed women’s rights since their return to power. In many cases they cannot go back to their jobs. Most girls’ secondary schools are closed. Street protests by activists were violently suppressed. Many fled the country.