Afghanistan: Sweeping New Taliban Morality Law Targets Women Especially, “They’re Making Women Die While They’re Alive.”

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Three years after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan the ruling Islamic extremist Taliban have passed an expansive new morality law that severely restricts Afghan freedoms, and targets women especially harshly.

Aimed at controlling how citizens should behave in public, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice late last month issued a 100-page law that includes prohibiting men from wearing western-style clothing – and neckties in particular. The law also “bans any representation of people in published or broadcast material, leading to concerns about how, for instance, identity documents will be used,” NPR said.

The new law goes on to oppress women to an even higher degree than was notorious before. “They may not leave their homes unless it’s urgent,” NPR explained in its report. “There’s no clear definition of “urgent” and presumably, that is decided by patrolling officials from the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, whose job it is to enforce this sweeping law. When they do venture outside their homes, they must always have a male guardian,” NPR noted.

“They cannot raise their voices in public. Even if they are speaking in their home, they must not do so in a way that could be overheard by strangers. Also: No laughing. No speaking loudly. No singing. Even in private gatherings.”

However, many Afghani women are refusing to accept this draconian treatment and have taken to the internet to protest – and sing, NPR reports. In one video, Fatima Etimadi, 34, sings: “The flower will unfurl, revealing a spring of freedom,” they chant. “I sing the anthem of freedom, again, again, freedom.”

“Every day, the Taliban seeks new ways to restrict women,” Etimadi told NPR in an interview. “They’re making women die while they’re alive.”

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