Members of the Afghanistan Women’s Political Participation Network, by staging a scene from the ID card office, condemned the Taliban’s policy of removing women’s photos from identity documents. These women said: “Having a photo on the ID card is our fundamental right; the Taliban cannot erase the identity of half of society.” This stance comes as Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, recently issued an oral decree banning the inclusion of Afghan women’s photos on ID cards. A few days later, the Taliban’s Statistics Department announced that including women’s photos on ID cards would be “optional.” Meanwhile, Sara Adams, a former officer of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in reaction to this decision, published photos of the wives of several Taliban officials on social media. She had warned that if this restriction was not lifted, she would release more photos. Adams posted this action on her X page under the title “Housewives of the Taliban,” using images obtained from diplomatic passports.
