Afghan women have been uploading videos of themselves singing in defiance of draconian laws imposed by the Taliban which order them to be silent in public.
In another clip, a woman who left Afghanistan for Germany after the Taliban’s return to power sings about the role of women in shaping history.
“If I don’t exist, who are you? Where are the true men among you? Without Ameneh and Rudabeh, where would Mohammad, Rostam, and Sohrab be?” she sings, referring to the mothers of the Prophet of Islam and famous male figures from Persian literature.
On Wednesday, the [Taliban](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/taliban/) issued the country’s first vice and virtue restrictions, requiring a woman to conceal her face, body and voice outside the home.
Women cannot sing or recite the Koran in public, and their clothing must not be thin, tight, or short. They have also been ordered not to speak loudly inside their homes in case their voices are heard outside.
Online videos showing women defying the orders have emerged not only in Afghanistan but in other parts of South Asia and Europe too.
On Tuesday, Volker Turk, the United Nations human rights chief, called on the Taliban to immediately repeal the “egregious” laws, which he said were attempting to turn women into shadows.
# ‘They cannot silence our voices’
Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the UN’s Afghanistan mission, said the restrictions provided a “distressing vision” for Afghanistan’s future.
Dr Zahra Haqparast, a Germany-based women’s activist who started a campaign against the new laws, told The Telegraph they were “the final bullet to the forehead of Afghan women.”
We should get weapons in the hands of these women so they can clean house of these barbarically zealots
This wont be resolved without blood shed. Women need to rise in the night and eliminate the oppressors.
I honestly thought this was an Onion headline at first. How depressing.
I mean, the international community does speak out on issues like this. But unless someone’s planning to put together a “security assistance force” to quell this type of barbarism, speaking out is all anyone is going to do.
So women have to cover up completely, they can’t talk, or look at other men.
How long before they’re not allowed to go outside?
The US should have wiped out the Taliban when they had the chance. What a disgrace.
Prayers for all those oppressed by Islam
My heart. Please don’t hurt them.
The women are not going to rebel, guys. The only chance afghan women had at freedom was when America and NATO invaded. You guys pushed for a withdrawal for years, and now that it’s happened and you’re face to face with the consequences, you’re all “OMG HELP THESE WOMEN!!” Idiots.
I deployed to Afghanistan as a combat advisor and trainer. We should have trained the women instead.
I bet if women had the power to leave the country, these assholes would be more respectful. I doubt these men would appreciate being abandoned by the other half.
It just shows that women are property, nothing more.
Yes Trump let Taliban out of prison and even met with them. Without this we wouldn’t have had to bail. Women in Afghanistan can blame Trump for their loss of rights. Biden would have had to commit loads of ground troops to recapture Taliban to secure law and order and women’s rights. They also killed off all the Afghan special forces we had been training for 20 years. Literally Trump enabled the Taliban to come back into power. I wonder what he will do to Ukraine.
Maybe the US Army should have been trying the Afghan women instead of the men to defend the country
I’m not advocating any of the following, I’m just curious.
Why hasn’t there been any paramilitary opposition to the Taliban? Why not ship weapons and people to train locals how to resist? This is a legitimately, objectively unconscionable society and these women (and gays and other minorities) need the help of the world to free themselves.
Remember when Afghanistan was occupied by the us and you didn’t hear stories like this?
These women have fathers or brothers. Change will only come if the men in these women’s lives do something about it.
These women have fathers or brothers. Change will only come if the men in these women’s lives do something about it.
I remember how sick I felt when Trump administration negotiated the withdrawal with the Taliban.
All Muslims out there don’t care unless Taliban=Israel …
Serious question: after all the time, money and resources which were poured into Afghanistan why did their army fold on day one? Afghan men didn’t raise a finger to stop the taliban.
I keep thinking two main things every time I read about the Taliban. 1) they are very moronic why attack half your population. A very quick way to rebellion is to do so. 2) they appear to be a very trusting bunch if I did even half the things they have done to their women I wouldn’t eat anything she prepared or fall asleep next to them.
Religion exists only to crush joy.
We owe every afghan women asylum, benefits and immediate job education for abandoning them like we did a few years ago and causing the taliban to grow in power before that.
Kinda seems like the solution to this isn’t to go to war directly with the taliban. But for the civilized world to offer a way out and assylm to these women and they’re young children. Evacuation seems like it would end these idiots faster generationally than directly fighting them.
Women’s rights are not a joke. This can happen anywhere. This is horrifying.
I wish NATO had trained the women there instead. At least gave them the skills and tools to fight the oppression. I bet at the very least, they wouldn’t have just handed the reigns back to the Taliban.
28 comments
**From The Telegraph’s Akhtar Makoii:**
Afghan women have been uploading videos of themselves singing in defiance of draconian laws imposed by the Taliban which order them to be silent in public.
Women from inside and outside the country have joined in the campaign challenging the Taliban’s new [so-called vice and virtue laws](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/08/22/taliban-bans-afghan-women-looking-strange-men-loud-talking/), which include bans on women from baring their faces, singing and talking in public.
In one video, a woman in Afghanistan sings with her face and body fully covered.
“You placed the stamp of silence on my mouth until further notice,” she says.
“You will [not] provide me with bread and food until further notice, you’ve imprisoned me inside the house for the crime of being a woman.”
The lyrics appear to reference restrictions the Taliban imposed on the basic rights and freedoms of women and girls shortly after [seizing back control of the country](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/09/06/taliban-claim-full-control-afghanistan-saying-battle-panshir/) three years ago.
Among the rules was a ban on school attendance and [higher education](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/12/20/taliban-blocks-women-attending-university-afghanistan/), which, they said, would last “until further notice”.
In another clip, a woman who left Afghanistan for Germany after the Taliban’s return to power sings about the role of women in shaping history.
“If I don’t exist, who are you? Where are the true men among you? Without Ameneh and Rudabeh, where would Mohammad, Rostam, and Sohrab be?” she sings, referring to the mothers of the Prophet of Islam and famous male figures from Persian literature.
On Wednesday, the [Taliban](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/taliban/) issued the country’s first vice and virtue restrictions, requiring a woman to conceal her face, body and voice outside the home.
Women cannot sing or recite the Koran in public, and their clothing must not be thin, tight, or short. They have also been ordered not to speak loudly inside their homes in case their voices are heard outside.
Online videos showing women defying the orders have emerged not only in Afghanistan but in other parts of South Asia and Europe too.
On Tuesday, Volker Turk, the United Nations human rights chief, called on the Taliban to immediately repeal the “egregious” laws, which he said were attempting to turn women into shadows.
# ‘They cannot silence our voices’
Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the UN’s Afghanistan mission, said the restrictions provided a “distressing vision” for Afghanistan’s future.
Dr Zahra Haqparast, a Germany-based women’s activist who started a campaign against the new laws, told The Telegraph they were “the final bullet to the forehead of Afghan women.”
“I started the campaign, and soon many more [protesting girls](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/18/taliban-want-kill-wont-stop-teaching-afghan-girls/) joined,” she said. “The Taliban should face sanctions, the world must not negotiate with them.
“They should be put on trial for [stripping women of all freedoms](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/taliban-rolling-back-rights-afghan-women-girls-32-areas-say/) and condemning women to death by stoning,” the founder of Unity and Solidarity of Afghan Women, an activist group, added.
**Article Link:** [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/08/27/watch-afghan-women-defy-taliban-by-singing-in-public/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/08/27/watch-afghan-women-defy-taliban-by-singing-in-public/)
What a horrible country this would be to live in.
The best move would have been to arm the women of Afghanistan and train them to become an army.
Time for the lysistrata defense.[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysistrata](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysistrata)
We should get weapons in the hands of these women so they can clean house of these barbarically zealots
This wont be resolved without blood shed. Women need to rise in the night and eliminate the oppressors.
I honestly thought this was an Onion headline at first. How depressing.
I mean, the international community does speak out on issues like this. But unless someone’s planning to put together a “security assistance force” to quell this type of barbarism, speaking out is all anyone is going to do.
So women have to cover up completely, they can’t talk, or look at other men.
How long before they’re not allowed to go outside?
The US should have wiped out the Taliban when they had the chance. What a disgrace.
Prayers for all those oppressed by Islam
My heart. Please don’t hurt them.
The women are not going to rebel, guys. The only chance afghan women had at freedom was when America and NATO invaded. You guys pushed for a withdrawal for years, and now that it’s happened and you’re face to face with the consequences, you’re all “OMG HELP THESE WOMEN!!” Idiots.
I deployed to Afghanistan as a combat advisor and trainer. We should have trained the women instead.
I bet if women had the power to leave the country, these assholes would be more respectful. I doubt these men would appreciate being abandoned by the other half.
It just shows that women are property, nothing more.
Yes Trump let Taliban out of prison and even met with them. Without this we wouldn’t have had to bail. Women in Afghanistan can blame Trump for their loss of rights. Biden would have had to commit loads of ground troops to recapture Taliban to secure law and order and women’s rights. They also killed off all the Afghan special forces we had been training for 20 years. Literally Trump enabled the Taliban to come back into power. I wonder what he will do to Ukraine.
Maybe the US Army should have been trying the Afghan women instead of the men to defend the country
I’m not advocating any of the following, I’m just curious.
Why hasn’t there been any paramilitary opposition to the Taliban? Why not ship weapons and people to train locals how to resist? This is a legitimately, objectively unconscionable society and these women (and gays and other minorities) need the help of the world to free themselves.
Remember when Afghanistan was occupied by the us and you didn’t hear stories like this?
These women have fathers or brothers. Change will only come if the men in these women’s lives do something about it.
These women have fathers or brothers. Change will only come if the men in these women’s lives do something about it.
I remember how sick I felt when Trump administration negotiated the withdrawal with the Taliban.
All Muslims out there don’t care unless Taliban=Israel …
Serious question: after all the time, money and resources which were poured into Afghanistan why did their army fold on day one? Afghan men didn’t raise a finger to stop the taliban.
I keep thinking two main things every time I read about the Taliban. 1) they are very moronic why attack half your population. A very quick way to rebellion is to do so. 2) they appear to be a very trusting bunch if I did even half the things they have done to their women I wouldn’t eat anything she prepared or fall asleep next to them.
Religion exists only to crush joy.
We owe every afghan women asylum, benefits and immediate job education for abandoning them like we did a few years ago and causing the taliban to grow in power before that.
Kinda seems like the solution to this isn’t to go to war directly with the taliban. But for the civilized world to offer a way out and assylm to these women and they’re young children. Evacuation seems like it would end these idiots faster generationally than directly fighting them.
Women’s rights are not a joke. This can happen anywhere. This is horrifying.
I wish NATO had trained the women there instead. At least gave them the skills and tools to fight the oppression. I bet at the very least, they wouldn’t have just handed the reigns back to the Taliban.