Opinion: Taliban silences the voice of the heart of their country

While talking on the sidelines at the United Nations General Assembly, Actor Meryl Streep mentioned cats, squirrels and birds however, they were related to a major humanitarian crisis. “A cat may feel the sun on her face. She may chase a squirrel into the park… A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not, and a woman may not in Public. This is extraordinary, this is a suppression of the natural law. This is odd.”, Streep said.

ALSO READ: Tisca Chopra is India's answer to Meryl Streep, critics and fans say

This came about from her take on Taliban-governed Afghanistan’s new law that restricts women from speaking in public. Not only is this law-making Afghani women inferior to men, but it’s also a curse on human rights. This new law is degrading to women who lived a very vocal and free life before the Taliban took over the country. The whole world saw this coming when Taliban militants drove down the roads of Kabul in tanks. Not only were they about to crush a developing country, but systematically destroyed the lives of millions of Afghani women.

Starting with pulling out girls from schools and colleges, then making them cover themselves in a burqa, and if that wasn’t enough they can’t leave their house until they’re accompanied by a male member of the family. This new law is just the nail in the coffin because now they can’t speak in public, voice their opinion or express themselves. All of this extremism in the name of Islamic values only degrades the image of Islam in the world.

Women, in all parts of the country, are told to be respected and adored. But these self-made Islamic values go beyond clothes, the Taliban first denied women from singing or laughing, then not letting them talk loudly and now no word at all. This makes women in Afghanistan completely invisible from society.