Children play near a brick kiln on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Representational image of a Taliban fighter standing guard as women wait to receive food rations distributed by a humanitarian aid group, in Kabul, Afghanistan
| Photo Credit: AP

The Taliban says it will close all national and foreign nongovernmental groups in Afghanistan employing women. It comes two years after they told NGOs to suspend the employment of Afghan women, allegedly because they didn’t wear the Islamic headscarf correctly.

In a letter published on X Sunday (December 29, 2024) night, the Economy Ministry warned that failure to comply with the latest order would lead to NGOs losing their licence to operate in Afghanistan.

The ministry said it was responsible for the registration, coordination, leadership and supervision of all activities carried out by national and foreign organisations.

The government was once again ordering the stoppage of all female work in institutions not controlled by the Taliban, according to the letter.

“In case of lack of cooperation, all activities of that institution will be canceled and the activity license of that institution, granted by the ministry, will also be canceled.”

It’s the Taliban’s latest attempt to control or intervene in NGO activity.

Earlier this month, the U.N. Security Council heard that an increasing proportion of female Afghan humanitarian workers were prevented from doing their work even though relief work remains essential.

According to Tom Fletcher, a senior U.N. official, the proportion of humanitarian organizations reporting that their female or male staff were stopped by the Taliban’s morality police has also increased.

The Taliban deny they are stopping aid agencies from carrying out their work or interfering with their activities.

They have already barred women from many jobs and most public spaces and also excluded them from education beyond sixth grade.

Tehran:

The Iranian state is planning to open a treatment clinic for women who flout the mandatory hijab laws that require them to cover their heads in public. Announcing the opening of a “hijab removal treatment clinic”, Mehri Talebi Darestani, the head of the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said the establishment will offer “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal”.

“The establishment of this center will be for the scientific and psychological treatment of removing the hijab, specifically for the teenage generation, young adults, and women seeking social and Islamic identity and visiting this center is optional,” a report by Iran International quoted Talebi as saying.

Notably, the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice falls under the direct authority of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The body is reportedly responsible for defining and enforcing strict religious standards in Iran, particularly those related to women’s dress.

Move Sparks Outrage

The announcement came weeks after a university student, who stripped down to her underwear on a Tehran campus in an apparent protest at harsh treatment by dress code enforcers, was detained and sent to a psychiatric hospital for mental health treatment.

The news of the new clinic has spread among the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest groups and women, sparking fear and outrage.

Speaking with The Guardian on the condition of anonymity, a young woman from Iran said, “It won’t be a clinic, it will be a prison.”

“We are struggling to make ends meet and have power outages, but a piece of cloth is what this state is worried about. If there was a time for all of us to come back to the streets, it’s now or they’ll lock us all up,” she said. 

According to Iranian human rights lawyer, Hossein Raeesi, the idea of a clinic to treat women who did not comply with hijab laws is “neither Islamic nor aligned with Iranian law”. 

Use Of Psychiatric Facilities To Curb Dissent

Iranian authorities have been widely accused of using mental health institutions to curb the dissent against the strict hijab law. The method has been condemned by human rights advocates as psychologically abusive and manipulative.

Speaking to The Guardian, Sima Sabet, a UK-based Iranian journalist who was a target of an Iranian assassination attempt last year, said the move is “shameful”.

“The idea of establishing clinics to ‘cure’ unveiled women is chilling, where people are separated from society simply for not conforming to the ruling ideology,” she said.

Since the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement began, hardliners have increased efforts to enforce strict dress codes for women. Artists, including actresses Afsaneh Bayegan, Azadeh Samadi, and Leila Bolukat, who posted images of themselves without a hijab, reportedly received court-ordered mandates for weekly visits to psychological centers for mental health certificates in response to their conduct.

The “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement began in Iran after the death of young woman Mahsa Amini in police custody over hijab violations in September 2022.

Iraq is set to amend its marriage laws which would lower the legal age of consent from 18 to nine, allowing old men to marry young girls, according to a report in The Telegraph. Dominant Shia Muslim parties in the Iraqi Parliament have proposed an amendment to the country’s “personal status law” that could see a Taliban-style rollback of all women’s rights. If passed, the legal changes will deprive the Iraqi women of rights to divorce, child custody and inheritance as well.

The proposed changes would mark a shift from the 1959 legislation, also known as Law 188, which was introduced after the fall of the Iraqi monarchy. The law transferred family law authority from religious figures to the state judiciary. The coalition of Shia Muslim parties claims that the proposed move aligns with a strict interpretation of Islamic law and protects young girls from ‘immoral relationships’.

While attempts have been made in the past to amend the law, this is the first time it seems that the Iraqi lawmakers might be able to see it through. A second reading of the amendment to the law was passed in September earlier this year.

“It’s the closest it’s ever been. It has more momentum than it’s ever had, primarily because of the Shia parties,” Dr Renad Mansour, a senior research fellow at Chatham House was quoted as saying by the publication.

“It’s not all Shia parties, it’s just the specific ones that are empowered and are really pushing it. Stressing the religious side is a way for them to try and regain some of the ideological legitimacy that has been waning over the last few years.”

Also read | UN Political Mission In Iraq To End By 2025 After Over 20 Years

Opponents of the move have slammed the government and MPs for attempting to diminish women’s rights. Meanwhile, human rights groups stated that the new law effectively puts young girls at risk of sexual and physical violence.

According to the United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, despite outlawing child marriages in the 1950s, 28 per cent of girls in Iraq are already married before the age of 18. A loophole in the law where religious leaders officiate these marriages, instead of the courts, allows underage girls to be married to older men with permission from the father.

New Delhi:

Justice Hima Kohli (retired), who has always been vocal about women’s rights and is considered a tough judge, recently retired from the Supreme Court. In an exclusive conversation with NDTV, Justice Kohli spoke on a range of issues from her long experience in the legal profession.

“Women judges need to be tougher because they face more difficulties in the judiciary. It was very difficult to become a woman judge back in the 1980s. Women also face many difficulties in advocacy,” Justice Kohli told NDTV.

She was the ninth woman judge in the history of the Supreme Court, and the first woman judge in the Delhi High Court.

Justice Kohli has been known as a tough judge, and has been part of many historic decisions, with a focus on women’s rights.

Explaining some of the difficulties that women face, Justice Kohli said first and foremost they have to take care of family and children. “Why should only women judges run family courts, child welfare, etc? Women judges should get jurisdiction in other areas too… Gender bias as far as bench composition is concerned is absolutely abhorrent. They face problems in working on criminal cases… First-generation lawyers face the biggest challenge as they do not have any resources, office or anyone to handle files,” she said.

“A woman choosing to be a lawyer was difficult in itself. While judicial officers had it easier to make it to the bench, going to the bench from the bar was more difficult for a woman lawyer,” Justice Kohli told NDTV.

“How well you handle any situation could determine if you reach there. As a judge, I never had a problem with my colleagues. Senior peers were quite supportive,” she said.

She asked the public to keep their trust in the Supreme Court as judges listen to their conscience. Though there have been controversial cases, it is only natural for judges to make mistakes sometimes as they are also human, Justice Kohli said.

She praised the use of virtual hearings as it has enabled justice to reach the homes of the common people directly.

On professionalism, Justice Kohli said it is important for judges to see everyone equally. “Whatever kind of relationship you have with someone outside, you should not cross the line. Mutual relations should not come in the way of work. As judges, we have to look only at the merit of the case and not the face,” Justice Kohli said.

She pointed at the need for judges to be aware of what’s happening in today’s world and not to stay disconnected. “Judges should know the problems of the common people. While judges are not on social media, it is important to be aware of what’s happening online,” Justice Kohli said.

She said her advice to young lawyers would be to sit in court in their free time, or head to the library and not the canteen. “If there is no case, do not sit at home,” she said.

Justice Kohli said she was fond of writing poetry, but had to keep some things on the backburner after becoming a judge, which she served for 18 years, as she had to spend a lot of time writing judgments.

She learnt gardening from her sister, and has been an avid music listener, but that gradually faded away after becoming a judge due to workload, Justice Kohli said, adding listening to music in the car was a rarity.

Dharamshala:

The Dalai Lama on Saturday congratulated jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi on winning the Nobel Peace Prize and said the award was also in recognition of the vital role women play in people’s lives. Mohammadi, 51, was awarded the prize on Friday in recognition of her tireless campaigning for women’s rights and democracy and against the death penalty.

In a letter to her on Saturday, the Tibetan spiritual leader said, “Today, the values of democracy, transparency, respect for human rights, and equality are increasingly recognised on every side as universal values, which can only benefit us all.”

“I have met and held discussions with previous Nobel laureates, including your sometime colleague, Mrs. Shirin Ebadi. I admire their efforts to overcome discrimination against women and improve society in a peaceful way. I believe that the award of this Nobel Peace Prize is also in recognition of the vital role women play in the lives of us all from the very day we are born,” the Dalai Lama wrote.

He said there is a growing desire for change in the world, a change that will see conflicts resolved through dialogue and non-violence.

“The foundation of such change will be kindness, compassion and human responsibility. I believe that this goal can be achieved through education based on a deeper appreciation of the oneness of humanity. Because we are so interconnected, this is a question of the well-being of us all,” he wrote.