Afghanistan - October 2024

On 27 October, Vice and Virtue Minister Khalid Hanafi announced that it is illegal for women to perform Koranic prayers or recite verses in front of another woman. Women are being banned from “hearing other women’s voices” and a woman shall not pray loud enough for other people to hear her. Human rights activists have stated that the ambiguous wording of the decree could be applied arbitrarily, potentially even meaning that women will be banned from talking to one another. The decree is a continuation of the Taliban’s crackdown on women’s rights and suppression of their autonomy in the public and private sphere.

Sources: ABC News, Global News, Kabul Now

The Taliban’s Vice and Virtue Ministry is introducing a ban on images of living things being shown on television and in newspapers. The Ministry argues the Islamic prohibition of idolatry implies that the portrayal of living things in photos and videos is idolatrous. The ban is already in force in some provinces and is gradually being implemented across the country. Human Rights Watch said the ban is another breach of the freedom of the press in Afghanistan, and that the purpose of the ban is to make it more difficult to portray civil rights violations in the country, as no photos or videos of actual people are allowed to be broadcast.   

Sources: Associated Press (AP), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America (VoA), Kabul Now