Fewer and fewer women travel on the streets by taxi due to the Taliban's strict and harsh regulations.
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Women wearing burqas catch a taxi in the Afghan capital Kabul. (Source: Getty Images) |
Fereydun, a rickshaw driver from Herat, western Afghanistan, has now stopped taking women. He said that if he found a woman not wearing a full-body covering on his vehicle, the Taliban would confiscate his driver’s license.
In the past, the Taliban had repeatedly stopped his car and dragged women who were not wearing burqas out to “teach them a lesson.” He himself was even punished.
Women's rights are suppressed
Nearly two years since the Taliban took power, Afghan women continue to stand up against orders.
Many people refuse to wear burqas and go out without covering their faces. In a decree issued in May 2022, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada asked women in the country to cover their faces completely in public “out of respect and tradition”.
When the Taliban took power in August 2021, they pledged to respect women's rights. However, they have since been excluded from most professions and barred from attending universities.
Most recently, beauty salons have also been banned. For women who continue to show their faces, the pressure is mounting.
Witnesses in Afghanistan say morality police have been deployed across major cities, under orders from the Taliban's Ministry of Propagation of Morality and Prevention of Vice.
In addition, the Taliban also issued a decree stating that taxi drivers, rickshaw drivers and other passenger vehicles will not be allowed to transport women without headscarves in the city.
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| Afghan women continue to fight for their rights. (Source: Getty Images) |
“Whenever women go out, they must be accompanied by a man,” an official from the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Mr. Akif Mohajer, told the media.
“When women move around the city, no man is allowed to sit next to them, and they must wear a headscarf in accordance with Islamic regulations.”
However, the rules on what constitutes a “proper Islamic headscarf” are not clear. Dina, a woman from Herat, said she was repeatedly kicked off her rickshaw and insulted for wearing a long coat and headscarf instead of a full-body covering.
Mr Mirza, the driver from Kabul, also confirmed that the Taliban had repeatedly warned him about transporting women without face coverings or headscarves. Failure to do so would result in punishment and the confiscation of his driving license.
Restrict women from public places
According to Ms. Marof Arwin, founder of a welfare organization for women and children, the main purpose of these regulations is to remove women from the public eye.
“With their recent repressive measures, the Taliban have shown that they are continuing to apply the policies they introduced during their early years in power. However, unlike before, the exclusion of women from society is now being carried out in a specific and systematic way,” she said.
During the Taliban’s first period in power from 1996 to 2001, they were known for their misogynistic regime. At that time, women were forced to cover their bodies in public, were not allowed to leave their homes without a male escort, and were not even allowed to see male doctors, leading to many illnesses being left untreated.
Experts warn that the Taliban want to return Afghanistan to that era, regardless of the consequences.
In February 2022, the Taliban announced that female medical students would not be allowed to take their final exams. In December 2022, the government banned women from attending universities.
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