Afghanistan’s Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has issued an order that new residential buildings should be constructed without windows looking onto “places usually used by women” and said that existing windows with such views should be blocked to prevent “obscene acts”.

According to a statement released by the Taliban government spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, new buildings should not have windows through which it is possible to see “the courtyard, kitchen, neighbour’s well and other places usually used by women”.

“Seeing women working in kitchens, in courtyards or collecting water from wells can lead to obscene acts,” according to the decree posted by government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on social media platform X.

Municipal authorities and other relevant departments would have to monitor construction sites to ensure it is not possible to see into neighbours’ homes.

In the event that such windows exist, owners would be encouraged to build a wall or obstruct the view “to avoid nuisances caused to neighbours”, the decree states.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, women have been progressively erased from public spaces.

Taliban authorities have banned post-primary education for girls and women, restricted employment and blocked access to parks and other public places.

A recent law even prohibits women from singing or reciting poetry in public under the Taliban government’s ultra-strict application of Islamic law. It also encourages them to “veil” their voices and bodies outside the home.

Some local radio and television stations have also stopped broadcasting female voices.

Heather Barr, the interim deputy director of women’s rights at Human Rights Watch, told The Independent: “People have talked about the Taliban metaphorically erasing women, but increasingly, it is not metaphorical at all.

“They have already ordered that women’s voices shouldn’t be heard in public, and now they are essentially stopping women from even seeing the world.”

A 27-year-old woman identified as Fatima Dzuma has been arrested for k!lling her 25-year-old husband, Baba Aliyu, in Lafiyagi Dzwafu village in Katcha Local Government Area of Niger State.

Dzuma was said to have married Baba three years ago as his second wife after divorcing her first husband, but she had not given birth to Baba, while Baba’s first wife had just given birth, and preparations were underway for the naming ceremony.

Sources told The Nation that the deceased and the suspect usually had misunderstandings, and even the night before Dzuma killed Baba, they had a fight in which Baba beat Dzuma.

Confessing to the crime, Dzuma narrated that there had been an altercation between them that night, and she was b3aten by her husband, who left the house after the assault.

“When he came back, he went to bed. I used a rope to tie his neck, and he could not struggle. I hit him with a pestle three times, twice on his head and once on his hand. I took advantage of his sleeping because his sleep is always deep,” she said.

“After I k!lled him, I put him inside a mat, threw him over the fence and dragged him to the bush in the backyard before coming back to wash the blood and excreta that came out of his body when I k!lled him.”

When asked why she ki!led him, she said they had a misunderstanding where she told him that she did not love him anymore, and he b3at her up.

When the family of Baba was looking for him, she claimed she had not seen him but confessed to the crime three days after she k!lled h!m.

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Source: NTANewsNow