Taliban relentlessly attack the bodies and autonomy of Afghan women

Last week, the Taliban in Afghanistan issued outrageous new “vice and virtue” laws that require women to completely cover their bodies, including their faces, at all times in public.

When the law was passed, the Taliban claimed that women’s voices could lead to vice and described their voices as aurat (a term from Sharia, Islamic law, that refers to the intimate areas of a man or woman that must be covered).

Reducing their voices and bodies to objects and sources of sin is an egregious act of sexualization and objectification of women. These laws attack women's personhood and autonomy and contribute to their further erasure from society. The Taliban have also announced that women will not be allowed to speak in public, sing or recite aloud.

When the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan three years ago, some were optimistic that “version 2.0” would be different and more open to women's and human rights, as if their initial rule from 1996 to 2001 had not already been marked by oppression and misery for the people of Afghanistan, especially women and girls. For much of the international community, the Taliban's past of relentless repression, flogging, stoning and public executions seemed easily forgotten. Many diplomats seemed quick to overlook the fact that civilians had lost their lives to Taliban attacks during the previous republic.

Since 2021, the Taliban has persistently attacked women's autonomy and repressed them from all sides. They have excluded girls and women from education beyond sixth grade, from many forms of employment, and from public life. They have reduced women and girls to the status of non-humans and severely restrict their freedom of movement, denying them any sense of agency or autonomy.

After the new laws were announced, many Afghan women bravely defied the ban. Some women in Afghanistan posted videos of themselves singing. Others gathered in parks outside the country, singing about freedom and women's resistance, and chanting that no one and nothing could silence the women of Afghanistan.