The Taliban government’s ethics ministry told AFP on Saturday that women in Afghanistan are not prohibited from talking to each other, denying recent media reports of a ban.

Afghan media outside the country and international outlets have reported in recent weeks that women have been banned from hearing the voices of other women, citing a voice recording by Mohammed Khalid, head of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (PVPV). Hanafi about the rules of prayer.

PVPV spokesman Saiful Islam Khyber said in an audio recording verified by AFP that the reports were “brainless” and “illogical”.

“A woman can talk to another woman, women need to interact with each other in society, women have needs,” she said.

But he added that under Islamic law, there are exceptions, such as when women are required to use hand gestures rather than raising their voices to communicate with other women when praying, as defined by Hanafi.

Women in Afghanistan are banned from singing loudly or reciting poetry in public, according to a recent “vice and virtue” law that details comprehensive rules of conduct for women in Afghanistan, including that their voices along with their bodies must be “concealed” when outside their homes.

In some provinces, women’s voices were also banned from television and radio broadcasts.

The law codified many rules that the Taliban government has implemented since taking power in 2021, based on its strict interpretation of Islamic law, with women bearing the brunt of restrictions that the United Nations has called “gender apartheid.”

Taliban authorities banned girls and women from receiving education beyond secondary school; He also banned them from various businesses, parks and other public places.

The Taliban government has said that the rights of all Afghan citizens are guaranteed under Islamic law.