“How are women who are the sole providers for their families supposed to buy bread, seek medical care or simply exist if even their voices are forbidden?” one activist said in response. “Whatever he says is a form of mental torture for us,” an Afghan woman in Kabul told The Telegraph. “Living in Afghanistan is incredibly painful for us as women. Afghanistan is forgotten, and that’s why they are suppressing us – they are torturing us on a daily basis.” “They say we cannot hear other women’s voices, and I do not understand where these views come from,” she added. g an all-out war against us’, says one Kabul resident in response to the bizarre rule. Since taking power in Aug 2021, the Taliban has systematically restricted women’s rights in Afghanistan. Women have already been ordered to cover their faces “to avoid temptation and tempting others” and refrain from speaking in the presence of unfamiliar men who are not husbands or close relatives. “If it is necessary for women to leave their homes, they must cover their faces and voices from men” and be accompanied by a “male guardian”, according to the rules approved by the Taliban’s supreme leader. Afghan women have also been ordered not to speak loudly inside their homes, to prevent their voices from being heard outside. Women who defy the new rules will be arrested and sent to prison, the Taliban said.'
