Taliban's bizarre rule: Afghan women can't hear each other while praying

The Taliban has issued a bizarre rule prohibiting women in Afghanistan from praying aloud in the presence of one another, in the latest order that has further restricted the freedom of Afghan women since the group came to power in 2021.

The announcement was made by Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban's Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. He claimed that a woman's voice is considered "awrah", or that which must be covered, and should not be heard in public, not even by other women, The New York Post reported.

Hanafi asserted that women should not recite the Quran audibly even when in the company of other women. "When women are not allowed to call Takbir or Azan (the Islamic call to prayer), they certainly cannot sing songs or enjoy music," he claimed.

While the order focuses on women's prayers, experts fear that such rules would lead to broader implications, which could restrict Afghan women's ability to speak freely in public and further restrict their rights.

Afghan activists residing abroad have condemned the Taliban's latest order, calling the move a "system of gender apartheid".

"It is hard to imagine the situation getting worse after the Taliban banned women’s voices and faces in public last month, but with this latest decree, we have seen that the Taliban’s capacity to inflict harm on women has no limits," Zohal Azra, from the Australian Hazara Advocacy Network, told news.com.au.

"Since returning to power in Afghanistan the Taliban has effectively erased women and girls from public life in methodical, and systematic approach involving over 105 decrees, edicts, and orders that are enforced violently and arbitrarily, including through detention, sexual abuse, torture and cruel, inhuman, or other degrading treatment and punishment such stoning and whipping women and girls," Azra added.

The activist demanded urgent global intervention to support Afghan women suffering under the Taliban's oppressive rule. "Through these decrees the Taliban has established a system of gender apartheid," she said.

Zaki Haidari, a campaigner for Amnesty Australia’s Strategic Refugee Rights, told news.com.au that the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan was "growing darker by the day".

"The Taliban is methodically punishing women, seemingly testing how far they can push before the world responds," Haidari, who is a Hazara, said.

He slammed the international community for being "largely silent" as the Taliban "feels empowered, believing they have the power to erase women entirely from public life and society".

Since 2021, the Taliban has already issued a series of orders, barring women from wearing revealing clothes, and singing, reciting or reading aloud in public. They have been ordered to cover their bodies, including wearing hijab and should remained covered in the presence of non-Muslim men and women.