Fewer and fewer women are traveling on the streets by taxi due to the strict and oppressive regulations imposed by the Taliban.
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Women wearing burqas are hailing taxis in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Source: Getty Images) |
Mr. Fereydun, a rickshaw driver from Herat, western Afghanistan, has now stopped transporting women. He said that if the Taliban found any women not fully covered in his rickshaw, they would confiscate his driver's license.
In the past, the Taliban had repeatedly stopped his vehicle and dragged women who weren't wearing burqas out to "teach them a lesson." He himself had even been punished.
Women's rights are being suppressed.
Nearly two years after the Taliban seized power, Afghan women continue to stand up against orders.
Many people refuse to wear burqas and go out without covering their faces. According to a decree issued in May 2022, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada required women in the country to completely cover their faces in public “as it is tradition and respect.”
When they came to power in August 2021, the Taliban pledged to respect women's rights. However, shortly afterward, women were excluded from most professions and banned from attending universities.
Most recently, beauty salons have also been banned. For those women who continue to expose their faces, the pressure is mounting.
Witnesses in Afghanistan report that moral police forces have been deployed throughout major cities, acting on directives from the Taliban's Ministry of Morality and Crime Prevention.
In addition, the Taliban issued an order stipulating that taxi drivers, rickshaw drivers, and drivers of other passenger vehicles would not be allowed to transport women without headscarves within the city.
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| Afghan women continue to fight for their rights. (Source: Getty Images) |
According to an official from the Ministry of Morality and Crime Prevention, Akif Mohajer declared to the media: "Whenever women go out, they must have a man with them."
"When women travel through the city, no man is allowed to sit next to them, and they must wear a headscarf to cover their heads completely, in accordance with Islamic regulations."
However, regulations regarding what constitutes "an Islamic headscarf" are not clearly defined. Dina, a woman from Herat, said she has been repeatedly kicked off rickshaws and insulted for wearing a long coat and headscarf instead of a full-body covering.
Mr. Mirza, a driver from Kabul, also confirmed that the Taliban had repeatedly warned him about transporting women without face coverings or headscarves. Failure to comply would result in punishment and the confiscation of his driver's license.
Restrict women from going to public places.
According to 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.
She stated, "With these recent repressive measures, the Taliban have shown that they are continuing to implement the policies they adopted in the early days of their rule. However, unlike before, the exclusion of women from society is now being carried out in a concrete and systematic way."
During the Taliban's first period in power, from 1996 to 2001, they were known as a regime that disregarded women. Women were forced to cover themselves completely in public, were not allowed to leave their homes without a male escort, and were even denied access to male doctors, leading to many illnesses being left untreated.
Experts warn that the Taliban are seeking to return Afghanistan to its former state, 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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