The Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has verbally ordered all taxi drivers in Jawzjan province to offer rides to women travelling without their mahram, or close male relative.
Several drivers tell Zan Times that the Taliban went to the central taxi stand in downtown Sheberghan to deliver the new edict on Sunday, November 27.
“The Taliban agents of vice and virtue warned us that if we behave against Taliban principles, we will face imprisonment,” says a taxi driver, who asked not to be named. The Taliban also warned the drivers that they were going to seriously monitor the taxi industry to ensure their rules were being obeyed, reports the driver.
Another driver confirmed the new Taliban rule, saying, “It will be difficult for us to work under the conditions set by the Taliban because most of our passengers are women.”
The restriction on women taking taxis is just the latest in a series of edicts issued by the Taliban that aim to remove women from public life. The group has recently banned women from going to amusement parks, gyms and public bathhouses. Businesswomen in Daikundi province were recently told by the Taliban’s directorate of vice and virtue that they can’t conduct business with male clients and employers.
Women across the country are frightened to leave their homes, especially after it was revealed that the Taliban imprisoned women for “moral crime” or travelling while not accompanied by male chaperones. A recent documentary by Ramita Navai, a British-Iranian producer, shows a women’s prison where 90 women were imprisoned. Some women featured in the documentary say the Taliban pressured them to marry their members in exchange for freedom.
