Watch: Afghan women defy Taliban by singing for their freedom

Online protest challenges new restrictions ordering women to be silent in public

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, 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 three years ago.
Among the rules was a ban on school attendance and higher education, 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 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.
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 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 and condemning women to death by stoning,” the founder of Unity and Solidarity of Afghan Women, an activist group, added.
Dr Haqparast said: “Our voices are so loud, they’re making them deaf. I want to sing a female revolutionary song so that my voice will deafen the ears of the terrorists, I want women to unite and raise their voices for their rights.”
The activist used to be a dentist in Afghanistan but lost her job after the Taliban returned to power in 2021 following the US’s withdrawal from the country.
She took to the streets and organised women’s protests, but said she was imprisoned and tortured for her “desire for freedom.”
Women inside Afghanistan who spoke to The Telegraph said the online protest was part of efforts to claim their right to be heard and to preserve their cultural identity amid the escalating restrictions on their freedoms.
“The Taliban cannot silence our voices, we are half of this society and they cannot even imagine how powerful we are,” said a former university lecturer in western Herat.
“We are now organising a protest rally in the city alongside other women, fully prepared to face whatever the Taliban may do in response.
“I would welcome death if it comes to that, our current living conditions offer nothing better,” she added.
In response to the global outrage against the laws, the Taliban’s minister for vice and virtue claimed on Tuesday that the international community lacked the authority to comment on Afghanistan.
Khaled Hanafi emphasised that the Taliban would engage with other nations only within the framework of “Islamic laws.”