Taliban bans women from being seen from neighbouring homes

The Supreme Leader of the Taliban has issued a new decree to ‘ensure women’s privacy’ in Afghanistan, which states they must not be visible from neighboring homes while cooking, sitting, or standing.

In the five-point decree, which was issued on Saturday, any two buildings constructed within a pathway’s distance from one another are forbidden to have windows facing the neighbor’s kitchen, water well, or any other area where women are ‘commonly present’.

Anybody who does have windows which overlook their neighbours property in such a fashion is required to build a wall or take other steps to minimise the ‘harm’ done to their neighbour, the decree states.

The move is the latest in a series of sweeping restrictions to women’s freedom imposed by the Taliban since they returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, as part of a broader movement to exclude women from public life.

Under the leadership of Hibatullah Akhundzada, more than 100 similar edicts have been issued which have seen women systematically stripped of their rights. These include banning women from attending university and getting jobs, halting their education at a primary school level and restricting their access to public spaces such as parks, restaurants and beauty salons.

Such edicts are enforced by a state-sponsored ‘morality police’ who are given sweeping powers to enforce these regulations and ensure that no new buildings violate the new rules.

The United Nations has condemned these policies as a form of ‘gender apartheid,’ underscoring the growing isolation and suffering of women and girls under Taliban rule.

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