How the Taliban's recent “vice and virtue law” is erasing women by justifying violence against them

Since his return to power three years ago the Taliban have enforced repressive laws that violate people's freedoms and human rights, especially those of girls and girls.

But a newly adopted “vice and virtueThe law goes even further. It is some of the repressive and discriminatory measures ever taken by the Islamist fundamentalist group.

As Human rights activist from Afghanistan and stuff a scientist who has been working on Afghanistan since 2002We have been documenting the Taliban's attacks on women for a long time.

This is the aim of the brand new law Completely silencing women in public. They are forbidden to talk loudly, sing or pray. The law also attempts to literally erase them from view by requiring women to cover every a part of their body and face in public.

The edict suppresses most of girls's political, civil and human rights guaranteed under international law. And when women resist, it orders using violence to suppress them.

A return to power

Generations of girls who grew up in Afghanistan for the last 20 yearsand people now living in Afghanistan and abroad have responded to them Law of vice and virtue with disbelief and horror.

After the Taliban got here to power in 2001, hundreds of thousands of Afghan women and girls went to high school. They became professionals – lawyers, artists, athletes, engineers and human rights activists. They voted in large numbers and served in all areas of presidency.

But in August 2021, the Taliban returned to power after waging a violent war against the US and the NATO-backed Afghan government. And they’ve aggressively rolled back 20 years of progress on women's rights.

Since then, the Taliban have done it issued over 100 regulations and directions that violate the rights of girls and girls under international law and Afghan national law.

They include greater than 20 increasingly restrictive guidelines. Among other things, they prohibit women and girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade and refuse to achieve this 1.5 million girls and young women Access to education. Afghanistan is now the one country on the earth that bans girls from each secondary school and university.

The mandates have also barred women and girls from employment on the United Nations and other nongovernmental organizations. This has made it extremely difficult for humanitarian aid organizations to achieve Afghan women and kids They need urgent help, especially in public health.

In addition, the fundamentalist group prohibits women and girls from traveling, going to parks or being in public and not using a male companion. And it bans women and girls from gathering to protest this treatment.

Punishments include torture and rape

To implement these violations, just just a few weeks after coming to power, the Taliban dissolved the Ministry of Women's Affairs and replaced it with the Ministry of Virtue and Vice, its moral police implement the measures by force.

Penalties for many who protest The laws include beatings, imprisonment, torture, rape and death. Demonstrators reported beaten and tortured with electric shocks. The Taliban have reportedly raped women and girls in prison. including the filming of gang rape an Afghan activist who was imprisoned for protesting.

At the identical time, women don’t have any opportunity to hunt justice. The Taliban abolished that Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. The Commission investigates and reports on alleged extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, illegal detention and inhumane treatment and violence against women and other rights violations.

In addition, the Taliban have abolished other mechanisms to guard women, including through Closure of all women's shelters and domestic violence centers.

“Duty to hide their voice”

The recent Law of vice and virtue further violates women's rights.

Article 13For example, it stipulates that when a lady leaves home, she “has the duty to conceal her voice, face and body.”

It orders women's voices to be completely silenced. They are usually not allowed to talk, sing, laugh, cry, pray or recite the Quran in public. The measure commands to forestall enforcers “the sound of a woman’s voice or any music emanating from a meeting or home.”

The measure also defines the hijab, a head covering that some Muslim women wear in public, as restrictively as possible. The hijab isn’t any longer only a head covering, but is expanding right into a full body covering and veiling of the face. Women are also prohibited from making eye contact with men.

This contradicts Afghan tradition. Traditional Afghan clothing for ladies is colourful, elaborately decorated, with long sleeves, wide skirts and trousers underneath.

Greater restrictions

The vice and virtue measure can also be geared toward the final population.

It censors people's access to media and imposes penalties for broadcasting music, videos, photos or movies of individuals or animals. Article 22 prohibits Afghan men and women from befriending or helping non-Muslims in any way.

The law gives overwhelming power to spiritual inspectors generally known as “enforcers.”

Law enforcement agencies may act based on observations and hearsay or the testimony of two people.

And there may be an inventory of penalties that enforcers can impose. This includes intimidation, verbal punishment, and confiscation and destruction of property.

Repeated violations by individuals or groups may end in criminal prosecution in court. Related to the Taliban's incorrect interpretation of Sharia criminal lawthe Law of Vice and Virtue allows long-term imprisonment, stoning, flogging, execution and throwing from a mountain.

For example, shortly after the measure got here into force, the law enforcement authorities got in contact two women seriously attacked for visiting town market.

The vice and virtue mandate has dashed many Afghans' hopes for real change within the Taliban's repressive policies. And it has raised serious doubts about how successful the international community has been in its efforts to enhance the status of Afghan women.

At recent high-level talks with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, UN and US officials gave in to the Taliban's demands complete exclusion of Afghan women from the talks. Just just a few weeks later, the Taliban, seemingly emboldened, announced their recent law on virtues and vices.

These human rights violations contradict religion and culture in Afghanistan, where women have long fought for his or her rights.

There is probably no other country on the earth today that violates the human rights of girls and girls as consistently because the Taliban. But it's not only the issue for ladies and girls in Afghanistan. Protecting human rights and human dignity is a responsibility that lies with each of us.