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Afghan cricketer Rashid Khan got married in Kabul on Thursday and while his colleagues received congratulatory messages, many are baffled by the complete lack of women in the photos, including the bride.
The Afghan T20I captain and his brothers Amir Khalil, Zakiullah and Raza Khan got married on the same day in a traditional Pashtun ceremony in the Afghan capital.
Several people were perplexed by the fact that among the many photographs posted on social media, none showed Khan's wife or any woman.
Afghan cricketer and former captain of the Afghanistan national cricket team, Mohammad Nabi, posted some photos from the ceremony on Wishing you a lifetime of love, happiness and success ahead.”
One fan responded: “Woh sab toh thik hai par dulhaniyaa kahan hai? (This is all good, but where is the bride?)
Another asked why there couldn't be a photo of his girlfriend with her face blurred.
In Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, women are virtually excluded from almost all aspects of public life, and several countries have expressed alarm at the systematic elimination of women's rights.
According to a UN report published in July 2024, the morality police have created a climate of fear and intimidation among Afghans. The report says it documented at least 1,033 cases between August 2021 and March 2024 in which ministry employees applied force during the implementation of orders, resulting in the violation of a person's freedom and physical and mental integrity. .
After the Taliban took power in August 2021, they banned women and girls from accessing education beyond sixth grade, as well as public spaces, such as parks, gyms, and beauty salons. They further restrict women's work, in a horrible repetition of the country's 1990s government.
Afghan women must be accompanied by a male guardian, father or husband (mehram) if they leave home or face punishment.
In August, the Taliban introduced the country's first set of official rules aimed at “preventing vice and promoting virtue,” requiring women to completely cover their bodies and faces with thick clothing in public. Under these new regulations, women are not allowed to let their voices be heard in public, not even from their own homes, not even by singing or reading aloud. Women are also prohibited from looking directly at men who are not immediate members of their family.
Penalties for violating these rules include “counseling, warnings of divine punishment, verbal threats, confiscation of property, detention from one hour to three days in public jails, and any other penalty deemed appropriate.”
The Taliban have reacted with disdain to widespread global criticism and condemnation of their new rules, saying they show “arrogance.”
Despite the ban, Afghan women are said to be defying the Taliban by flooding social media with videos of themselves singing. The lyrics of a popular song say: “Maybe his boots are on my neck. Or his fists in my face. But with our deep inner light, I will fight through this night.”
