Afghan women sing in protest over Taliban laws banning their voices

Afghan women, both inside and outside the country, have posted online videos of themselves singing in protest at the Taliban's new laws banning women's voices in public.

- Ashifa Kassam

Late last month the Taliban published new restrictions that claimed to combat vice and promote virtue. The 35-article document, which includes a raft of draconian laws, deems women's voices to be potential instruments of vice and stipulates that women must not sing or read aloud in public, nor let their voices carry beyond the walls of their homes.

As rights campaigners reacted with horror, Afghan women began pushing back. Across the country women uploaded videos of themselves singing, in defiance of the Taliban's systematic effort to erase women from the public sphere.

"No command, system or man can close the mouth of an Afghan woman," one 23-year-old said after posting her own video.