Taliban has introduced a new law that grants the members of their vice and virtue ministry the authority to imprison individuals for a range of perceived moral violations, including actions as minor as missing prayers or disobeying parents.
The vice and virtue law, recently signed by the Taliban’s supreme leader, comprises four chapters and 35 articles, significantly expanding the powers of the “morality police” to threaten and detain those who fail to adhere to the regime’s strict interpretation of Islamic law.
According to the law, anyone publicly engaging in what the Taliban consider “immoral acts” can be subjected to warnings, verbal threats, or imprisonment for up to three days.
The enforcers, known as muhtasibs, are also empowered to bring individuals before the courts for offenses like missing prayers, neglecting to pray in congregation, or any other conduct deemed inappropriate.
The law imposes even stricter regulations on women, declaring that the voices and faces of women are “forbidden” to men outside their immediate family.
Women are required to cover their faces entirely to avoid what the law describes as “temptation.”
It also mandates that women refrain from wearing “thin or short” clothing and that they conceal themselves from men who are not their relatives. Additionally, the law prohibits Muslim women from interacting with non-Muslim women.
The legislation explicitly states that it is forbidden for men to look at unrelated women, and vice versa, further entrenching the Taliban’s extreme measures to segregate the sexes.
This law comes amid the Taliban’s ongoing efforts to curtail the rights and freedoms of women and girls, intensifying restrictions that have been in place since they returned to power three years ago.
Richard Bennett, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, has labeled the Taliban’s actions as gender apartheid. The United Nations is scheduled to hold a meeting in October to discuss including gender apartheid as a crime against humanity in its conventions.
The new law reflects the Taliban’s relentless push to enforce their rigid interpretation of Islamic principles, further eroding the rights of women in Afghanistan and isolating them from both Afghan society and the outside world.
Under a the new law, Taliban has banned the publication of images depicting living beings, further tightening their already strict control over media and expression.
This law, sanctioned by the Taliban leader, comes as Taliban has imposed severe restrictions on the rights and freedoms of women and girls over the past three years. Richard Bennett, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur, has labeled the Taliban’s treatment of women as gender apartheid. In October, UN member states are scheduled to meet to discuss the inclusion of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity in international conventions.
In a related development, a senior official from the Taliban’s prison administration recently confirmed to Amu that at least 2,000 women are currently imprisoned in Taliban-run facilities. These women face charges ranging from fleeing their homes to theft and other alleged crimes.
Over the past three years, the Taliban have arrested dozens of women activists across the country, particularly in Kabul. Some of these women have been held in Taliban prisons for up to a year. Tamanna Zaryab Paryani, one of the detained activists, has reported being stripped naked by Taliban members during her imprisonment. According to a joint report by The Guardian and Rukhshana Media, another female activist who was imprisoned by the Taliban was subjected to gang rape by Taliban members.
In the last three years, the Taliban have publicly flogged more than 120 women on various charges. In a recent case, a woman in Kabul was flogged in one of the Taliban’s courts for alleged adultery and was subsequently sentenced to two years in prison.
According to data compiled by Amu from multiple reports, the Taliban have stoned at least 37 people to death over the past three years.
