SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Across the internet, Afghan women are committing what would be a crime in their homeland, ruled right now by the Taliban. They're singing.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Singing in non-English language).
DETROW: This comes after the Taliban issued a sweeping morality law in late August. It's more than 100 pages. It includes a ban on women's voices being heard outside their homes, no speaking loudly, no laughing and no singing, as NPR's Diaa Hadid reports.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE #1: (Singing in non-English language).
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: Fatima Etimadi and two girlfriends sing a defiant tune - a little out of tune.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE #1: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: The words, "I sing the anthem of freedom - again, again, freedom." In the video posted online, Etimadi wears a headscarf. Her friends have unfussy short hair. Etimadi tells NPR the Taliban's new morality law forces women to die while they're alive.
FATIMA ETIMADI: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: A lot of that law focuses on women. They can't leave their homes unless it's urgent. They must have a male guardian. They cannot raise their voices in public or in private gatherings. No laughing. No speaking loudly. No singing. This comes from the Taliban's belief that a woman - her body, her face, her voice - are attractive, alluring and must be hidden. It's an extreme interpretation of a belief long held by Islamic jurists that a woman's voice is bewitching. So...
JOHN BUTT: Should it be hidden? Should it be concealed? Should she not be able to speak in public, basically?
HADID: John Butt is an Islamic scholar. He's translating the morality laws for the think tank the Afghanistan Analysts Network. While he doesn't agree with the Taliban's interpretation...
BUTT: One has to accept that there's room for that opinion.
HADID: So far, the Taliban have only partially (ph) implemented their new law. But even the idea is repugnant to some Afghan women, like Sahar Fetrat, an Afghan feminist and researcher with Human Rights Watch.
SAHAR FETRAT: This campaign is a direct response to the horrifying objectification and sexualization of women by the Taliban, where they say women's voices equal their private parts.
HADID: Some of the Afghan women's protest songs are mournful, like a video shared of a woman in a black face veil.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: "You've sealed my lips," she sings. "You've imprisoned me for the crime of being a woman."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE #2: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: There's defiance. One young woman slaps a tambourine and grins.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE #2: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: She sings, "hey, Talib, you go to sleep reading your books, but your mind drifts to women's faces." Many clips end the same way.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: "My voice is not immodest."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NILOFER FAHIM: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: Nilofer Fahim shared her own clip singing.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
FAHIM: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: She fled to France after the Taliban seized power.
FAHIM: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: She says her voice is the only way she can resist the Taliban from turning women into nameless, anonymous shadows - baby-making machines, she says. Etimadi, who sung with her girlfriends, fled Afghanistan after the Taliban detained her father. It was to pressure her to stop protesting the Taliban's treatment of women when they first seized power three years ago.
ETIMADI: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: She says, "the singing is cathartic. We're singing out the pain and suffering of decades." Sahar Fetrat of Human Rights Watch says Afghan women have a long tradition of opposing the Taliban, but they're alone.
FETRAT: Women are carrying much more on their shoulders than they should be. The world is just silently watching this, and nothing is happening.
HADID: Fetrat accuses the international community of emboldening the Taliban by not sanctioning them enough for their increasingly harsh treatment of women in their three years of rule. That includes preventing most girls from studying after grade six, banning women from most professions.
FETRAT: There were absolutely no consequences, and they didn't see any consequences.
HADID: U.N. officials say they're pushing the Taliban behind the scenes. They say public shaming makes the group more defiant. A longtime Afghanistan analyst says the international community is stuck. Andrew Watkins says violence - the stick - did not change the Taliban.
ANDREW WATKINS: We saw over 20 years of war, killing huge numbers of their members, their leaders, even that did not deter them from pursuing their goal.
HADID: And since the Taliban seized power over Afghanistan again in 2021, the international community has offered carrots, like recognition and more aid.
WATKINS: The really bad news is that we've also been testing the carrot, and that seems just as ineffective as the stick.
HADID: The Taliban say they're following Islamic law. They urge outsiders to stop imposing their foreign beliefs. So for now, some Afghan women are raising their voices to anyone who'll hear them. One Afghan news channel picked up this woman, concealed in a blue burqa. She seems to sing along to this song played in the background.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: She sings, "the waves of girls' voices will shatter this prison." Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Mumbai. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
