On Monday, Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities announced that a newly approved morality law would be enforced “gently,” following concerns from both the international community and Afghan citizens.
The 35-article law, revealed by the justice ministry on Wednesday, mandates that women must be fully covered and refrain from raising their voices in public. It also includes various regulations on behavior, dress, and social interactions, such as rules on men’s clothing and beard length, and bans on homosexuality, animal fighting, public music, and non-Muslim holidays.
The United Nations, human rights groups, and Afghan citizens have expressed worries that this law might lead to stricter enforcement of rules that have been informally applied since the Taliban took power in 2021, implementing a strict interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia.
Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat assured in a voice message shared with AFP, “I must make it clear that force and oppression won’t be used while implementing these rules.”
The Taliban government has consistently dismissed international criticism of their policies, including the UN’s condemnation of restrictions on women, which it has labeled as “gender apartheid.”
Pl, subscribe to the YouTube channel of republicpolicy.com
The law outlines a range of punishments for non-compliance, from verbal warnings to threats, fines, and detentions of varying lengths, to be enforced by the morality police under the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, described the law as presenting a “distressing vision for Afghanistan’s future,” where moral inspectors have broad and sometimes vague powers to threaten and detain individuals.
