Taliban leader says music is banned and women must have male chaperone to travel – World News

Afghanistan women will need a male chaperone to go on trips away from home and music will be banned under the Taliban, but leader Zabihullah Mujahid claims they will be more liberal than before

Afghanistan women will need a male chaperone to go on trips that last more than a day and music will be banned, said a Taliban leader.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that the regime will be more liberal than it was in the past in the way women are viewed as it looked to be accepted by the international community.

But at the same time they should temporarily stay at home which critics have said is what happened when they last had power.

Talking to the New York Times, Mujahid claimed that women could continue working as long as they wear head coverings.

Under their previous stint in control the Talibans had forced women to wear the full burqa which covers the head and face and a mesh covering the eyes.

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The Taliban spokesman also said women will be allowed to travel to school, work and hospitals but they will need to be accompanied by a male for any longer journeys, it is reported, while there is a strict ban on music.

“Music is forbidden in Islam, but we’re hoping that we can persuade people not to do such things, instead of pressure them,” Mujahid said.

“We want to build the future and forget what happened in the past,” he said.

At the same time Mujahid wanted to calm fears of reprisals against opponents of the Taliban and denied they would look for revenge against interpreters or anyone with links to the West.

“They shouldn’t interfere in our country and take out our human resources – doctors, professors and other people we need here,” Mujahid said.

“In America, they might become dishwashers or cooks. It’s inhuman.”

Still Mujahid told a press conference that for the time being women should remain in doors for their own safety until a “new procedure is in place”.

He explained: “’We are worried our forces, who are new and have not been yet trained very well, may mistreat women.

“We don’t want our forces, God forbid, to harm or harass women.”

While the Taliban have said that women will be treated more liberally, it is also reported that under their previous rule they said that restrictions were only for the short term.

“The explanation was that the security was not good, and they were waiting for security to be better, and then women would be able to have more freedom,” Heather Barr, of Human Rights Watch, told The Times.

“But of course in those years they were in power, that moment never arrived – and I can promise you Afghan women hearing this today are thinking it will never arrive this time either.”

She believes that the Taliban have the world media on them at the moment and so are trying to appease them in words.

“They’re trying to look normal and legitimate and this will last as long as the international community and the international press are still there,” she said.

“And then we’ll see what they’re really like again.”