Taliban fighters in September 11 2021.
AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images
- The Taliban has further restricted women in Afghanistan.
- It said women can no longer travel by road without a male relative if going further than 45 miles.
- The Taliban has already limited women’s freedoms, including keeping girls out of schools.
The Taliban has declared that women in Afghanistan can’t travel more than 45 miles (72 kilometers) by road without being accompanied by a close male relative.
It issued a new order on Sunday, which also banned the playing of music in vehicles, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in August. The Taliban had last held Afghanistan before the group was removed by US-led coalition forces in 2001.
When last in power, women were not able to work, they were barred from schools, and women were not allowed to leave their homes without a male relative.
Women were also not allowed to be on the street with men who were not related to them, and people had to paint over their home’s windows to stop outsiders from seeing women inside, according to a 2001 report fro the US State Department.
Women could be punished for breaking these rules by beating beaten or being stoned to death.
The Taliban said that this time around it would protect women’s rights, but it has imposed strict rules on women, including barring girls from high schools.
Women who became activists, politicians, and judges after the Taliban was last defeated have said they were afraid of being hunted and punished.
Heather Barr, the associate director of women’s rights for Human Rights Watch, told AFP that the new travel order limited women.
She said it “shuts off opportunities for them to be able to move about freely, to travel to another city, to do business, [or] to be able to flee if they are facing violence in the home.”
