The Taliban have introduced a new rule restricting Afghan women from hearing each other's voices, an additional step toward erasing women's presence in public life, as reported by the New York Post. Taliban Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Khalid Hanafi, reportedly decreed that women must not be able to hear one another's voices, even during prayer.

Taliban claimed that a woman's voice is considered "awrah", or that which must be covered, and should not be heard in public, not even by other women.