No Long Distance Travel Without Male Relative: New Directive By Taliban

Women Long Distance Travel rules: The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has announced new directives to be followed by women travellers. The new directive is an addition to several restrictions on women in public spaces, colleges and work, by the Taliban. Since their takeover on August 15, most Afghan women were unable to return to their work and others like women journalists and politicians became targets of the autocratic regime.

On December 26, the Afghanistan authorities put out a circular stating that women will not be allowed to travel more than 72 kilometres alone and they need to keep a company of a male relative. The circular also mentioned that women without headscarves will not be given rides in Afghanistan.

However, the authorities have not specified the kind of headscarf as women already don one and the Taliban's definition of headscarf varies from covering the head to the entire body.

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The directive was issued by the Ministry of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. "Women travelling for more than 72 km should not be offered rides if they are not accompanied by a close family member," stated the Ministry's spokesperson Sadeq Akif Muhajir who then specified that the "close family member" needs to be male.

As per the new guidelines, people have also been asked to stop playing music in the vehicle.

The Human Rights Watch have spoken against the new directives and the Associate Director of women's rights, Heather Barr told the AFP news agency, "This new order essentially moves...further in the direction of making women prisoners." Barr added, "It shuts off opportunities for them to be able to move about freely, to travel to another city, to do business, to be able to flee if they are facing violence in the home."

On November 21, the Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice had banned television channels from showing drama and soap operas featuring women actors and made the hijab compulsory for women journalists presenting news on television. In a statement back then, the spokesperson of the Ministry Hakif Mohajir said, "These are not rules but religious guidelines." Read more about the ban here.