The Taliban’s recent enforcement of draconian laws that bar Afghan women from raising their voices and interacting with men outside their families has revealed the extent of their regressive agenda. These regulations, implemented under the pretext of Islamic virtue, have systematically erased women from the public sphere, subjecting them to further layers of oppression. What we are witnessing in Afghanistan is not the propagation of Islamic values but the deliberate and calculated suffocation of women’s rights.

This institutionalized control over women starkly contradicts the teachings of Islam. In its true essence, Islam is a faith that champions justice, equity, and the dignity of all human beings, irrespective of gender. Yet, the Taliban’s so-called “Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” has become a tool for enforcing brutal restrictions, eroding the fundamental rights of women to participate in society. Afghan women, already marginalized under earlier regimes, now find themselves under even more extreme repression, as their freedoms are stripped away in the name of religion. In reality, these measures are an expression of patriarchal power disguised as religious authority.

From the moment the Taliban regained control in 2021, Afghan women braced themselves for the worst. The swift imposition of bans on education and employment, particularly for women, sent a clear message that the regime’s interpretation of governance would once again sideline half the population. These actions, however, were initially portrayed as temporary, with vague promises of revisiting the restrictions. As time has passed, these so-called temporary bans have calcified into long-term policies, now fully institutionalized under the Taliban’s latest set of laws. For Afghan women, it feels as if the world is watching as they lose the rights and freedoms they had fought........

© Eurasia Review