Kabul: Afghan women protest against new limitations imposed by Taliban

Several dozen Afghan women on Tuesday protested against the new directives of the Taliban putting limitations on their movement.

In recent days the Islamic Emirate Ministry of Virtue and Vice issued a new directive on women’s travel, saying the women who are travelling long distances by road should be accompanied by a male relative, and they should wear a hijab, to cover their head and face. The directive also banned playing music in the vehicles, reported Tolo News. “Our forces told drivers and people to not play and listen to music, music is not allowed in the Islamic religion,” said Mawlawi Mohammad Sadeq Akef, a spokesman of the Ministry of Virtue and Vice.

Women protestors said that the Islamic Emirate is keeping women away from society by imposing limitations and called for their rights to education, employment and social freedom to be honoured, reported Tolo News. They used the slogans “we are the voice of hungry people” and “we are awake, we hate discrimination.”