Taliban bans windows to stop women from being seen at home
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Buildings should not have windows looking into places where women could be sitting or standing, Taliban leader orders. The Taliban have banned windows in residential buildings to stop women from being seen while they are at home in Afghanistan. Hibatullah Akhundzada, Taliban leader, ordered that buildings should not have windows looking into places where a woman could be sitting or standing.
![[Taliban fighters in the Afghan capital of Kabul on boxing day]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/30/07/Afghanistan_Taliban_73210.jpg)
The order applies to both new buildings as well as already existing ones, according to a four-clause decree posted on social media site X late on Saturday. A decree posted by government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on X states new buildings should not have windows where you can see “the courtyard, kitchen, neighbour's well and other places usually used by women”, AFP reports.
![[Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada made the decree]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/04/06/12/Afghanistan_Taliban_48709.jpg)
“Seeing women working in kitchens, in courtyards or collecting water from wells can lead to obscene acts”. The decree stipulates that in properties with windows that do not fit the new guidelines, owners will be urged to either construct a wall or block the view “to avoid nuisances caused to neighbours”.
The Taliban, a hardline Islamist group which previously ruled Afghanistan, has blocked women from the workplace, education and public spaces, as well as barring them from taking part in all sports since seizing power after US and British forces withdrew in 2021.
Women in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are currently prohibited from going to a salon, working out at the gym, and even speaking or praying in public. Within a month of claiming Kabul, the Taliban’s education ministry banned girls and women from schools. The Taliban leaders also announced that the girls were barred from studying beyond the sixth grade – with the ban extended to colleges and universities in December 2022.
