The Taliban’s restrictions on women and freedom of expression have drawn sharp criticism from rights groups and many foreign Governments since the former insurgents resumed control of Afghanistan in 2021.
| Photo Credit: AP

“Afghanistan’s Taliban formally codified a long set of rules governing morality this week, ranging from requiring women to cover their faces and men to grow beards to banning car drivers from playing music,” the Justice Ministry said.

“The rules, promoted as in line with Islamic sharia law and to be enforced by the Morality Ministry, were based on a decree by the Taliban’s supreme spiritual leader in 2022 and are now officially published as law,” a Justice Ministry spokesman said.

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The Morality Ministry, formally called the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Propagation of Virtue, has already been enforcing similar morality requirements and says it has detained thousands of people for violations. It was not immediately clear whether publication of the rules would lead to stronger enforcement.

The Taliban’s restrictions on women and freedom of expression have drawn sharp criticism from rights groups and many foreign Governments since the former insurgents resumed control of Afghanistan in 2021.

“Day by day, they are trying to erase women from society,” said a 37-year-old housewife in Kabul. “The silence of the international community regarding the actions of the Taliban is encouraging them to create new laws and restrictions every day,” added the woman, identified just by her first name, Halema.

Western capitals, led by Washington, have said the path to formal recognition of the Taliban is largely stalled until they reverse course on women’s rights and open high schools to girls.

The Taliban say they respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and local customs and that they are internal matters that should be addressed locally.

“The 35-article morality law was officially enacted and published on Wednesday after being ratified by Supreme Spiritual Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada,” said Justice Ministry spokesperson Barakatullah Rasoli.

“According to this law, the Ministry (for Prevention of Vice and Propagation of Virtue) is obligated to promote good and forbid evil in accordance with Islamic Sharia,” the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

The requirements include women to wear attire that fully covers their bodies and faces and bars men from shaving their beards as well as from skipping prayer and religious fasts.

Penalties for violations included “advice, warnings of divine punishment, verbal threats, confiscation of property, detention for one hour to three days in public jails, and any other punishment deemed appropriate,” the Justice Ministry added.

If such measures failed to correct an individual’s behaviour they would be referred to court for further action, it said.

“A lot of these rules were in place already but less formally and now they are being formalised I think this is a sign of what we’ve been seeing over the last three years which is a steady and gradual escalation of the crackdown,” said Heather Barr, Associate Director of Human Rights Watch’s Women’s Rights Division.

The laws also instruct drivers of vehicles not to transport women without a male guardian. They require media to abide by sharia law and ban the publication of images containing living beings.

Morality Ministry officials have been monitoring Afghans throughout the country for alleged offences for the past three years. The Ministry said this week that in the past year it had detained over 13,000 people, though it did not break down the alleged offences or gender of the detainees. It said around half of the detentions were for 24 hours.

The Taliban suspended Afghanistan’s previous constitution when they took over in 2021 as foreign forces withdrew, and said they would rule the country according to sharia law.

This week’s morality laws were the seventh set of codified laws, according to the Justice Ministry, with others relating to property, financial services and the prevention of begging.

A U.N. report says the Taliban are restricting Afghan women’s access to work, travel and healthcare if they are unmarried or don’t have a male guardian, a mahram. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The Taliban government’s morality police will play an increasing role in enforcing religious law in Afghanistan, according to a U.N. report published on July 9 that accused them of creating a “climate of fear”.

The report from the U.N. assistance mission in Afghanistan said the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice “had negative impacts on the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms… with a discriminatory and disproportionate impact on women”.

But the report also carried a response from Taliban authorities, who said the Vice Ministry had a bigger role to play.

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The Ministry implements an austere vision of Islam, which has increasingly dominated Afghanistan since the 2021 Taliban takeover.

Morality police squads are empowered to scold, arrest and deliver punishments to citizens violating edicts which have marginalised women, effectively banned music and outlawed other activity deemed un-Islamic.

The U.N. report said there was “a climate of fear and intimidation” owing to the Ministry’s invasion of Afghans’ private lives, ambiguity over its legal powers, and the “disproportionality of punishments”.

However, in their written response Taliban authorities said the Vice Ministry is “dedicated to promoting benefits and averting harm in all spheres of peoples’ lives”.

“Its official documents, as previously stated, draw from Sharia and Islamic law, and as a result, its role is growing as required by the situation.”

The U.N. report documents the work of the Vice Ministry between the Taliban’s return to power three years ago and March of this year.

It said the Taliban government had overseen a ban on women travelling without male escorts, enforced a conservative dress code on them, barred them from public parks and shut women-run businesses.

It also introduced “measures to reduce intermingling between men and women in daily life” — while instructing barbers to refuse “Western style” haircuts for men and arresting people playing music.

In their response, the Taliban government defended their decision to enforce male escorts for women, saying they are “to safeguard her honor and chastity” while Islamic dress was “a divine obligation”.

The Vice Ministry denied banning women from public places and said it only intervened in mixed-gender environments.