The Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has stated that women who wish to undertake long journeys must be accompanied by a male guardian (mahram). The ministry has also instructed drivers and transportation companies not to allow unveiled women to board and not to sell tickets to them.

A spokesperson for the ministry said that women traveling 72 kilometers or more must be accompanied by a male mahram or family member.

The Ministry also issued the following recommendations to drivers:

Drivers should not play music in their vehicles.
Unveiled women should not sit in the front seat of vehicles.
Unaccompanied women should not travel in vehicles beyond a radius of 45 kilometers from the city.
Drivers must abstain from using or transporting narcotics.
Drivers should stop their cars at prayer times in appropriate locations for passengers.

The Taliban, by setting up checkpoints in cities and highways, stop and inspect passenger vehicles. They demand identification cards from women and their companions, questioning them. If they lack proper documentation, they are taken off the vehicle and transferred to Taliban interrogation centers. This has forced women to bear the additional travel expenses of bringing a male relative along on their journeys. This directive poses economic and social challenges for women without husbands or male guardians, often leading them to forgo long-distance travel altogether.