Afghan YouTubers fear for future as Taliban ban women’s voices

KABUL: With a microphone and mobile phone in hand, Husna loved hitting the streets of Kabul every week to interview people for her YouTube videos. That excitement has turned to fear after the Taliban banned women from speaking in public.

The Taliban last month formally codified a host of morality laws in Afghanistan, which included requirements for women to veil themselves from head to toe in public and a prohibition on speaking outside of their homes.

Even at home, they should not be heard singing, reciting or reading out loud, according to the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Propagation of Virtue. “Every time I go to the city to film and interview people, I fear the Taliban might arrest me. It gives me a lot of anxiety,” said Husna, a 25-year-old YouTuber who requested to use a pseudonym to protect her identity.

“Our voice has become a source of shame. (The Taliban) want us to be imprisoned at home,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Her YouTube channel has garnered more than 5,000 subscribers since its launch in July last year.

Before the latest diktats, Husna created about 10 videos a month on topics ranging from clothes, textile production, ice-cream making, Afghan cuisine and the kind of social life people enjoy in an increasingly restrictive country.

While the new rules do not directly target YouTube or other social media platforms, content creators say their ability to make videos in public and at home will be curtailed. Scores of women who turned to YouTube in search of income after the Taliban seized power in 2021 and largely confined them indoors now fear for the future of their work.

“If you’re not actively producing videos, how can you earn? The current situation has negatively affected my work, income and mental well-being,” Husna said. She did not disclose how much she earned from her videos, but said that it was enough to support her family. “We can no longer work freely. I fear I may not be able to continue working in the future and pay for even basic expenses.”