The Taliban government claims that a set of new laws passed last week in Afghanistan seek to “promote virtue and eliminate vice,” while the United Nations calls it “worrying.”
The regulations include a ban on women speak loudly in public and show your faces outside their homes.
A senior UN official warned on Sunday that the charter offers a “worrying vision of the future for Afghanistan.”
The new laws have already been ratified by the country’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada.
The Ministry of Morality, formally known as the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, stressed that no one in the country was exempt from complying with them.
The new rules allow the mohtasabeen or the morality police interfering in the public life of Afghans, from how they dress to what they eat and drink.
According to the new legislation, the voices of Women are also considered “vice” when they are heard in public. The restrictions regarding these establish that “Whenever an adult woman leaves her home out of necessity, she is obliged to hide her voice, face and body.”
The ministry was already applying similar moral requirements based on the sharia or Islamic religious law, and reported that already has arrested thousands of people for not complying with them.
These rules, according to the Taliban, are in line with their interpretation of sharia law and the Ministry of Morality is responsible for enforcing them.
They are based on a 2022 decree by the Supreme Leader that has now been officially published as law.
What does the law say about women?
The law spells out how women must completely cover their bodies, including their faces, “to avoid leading men into temptation and vice.”
Below are other statutes:
- A woman’s voice is considered awrah and should not be heard in public. The Arabic word awrah refers to the body parts of both men and women that must be covered, which must not be visible in public.
- Women should also not be heard singing or reading aloud, even from inside their homes.
- Women’s clothing should not be thin, short or tight.
- Women must hide their bodies and faces from men to whom they are not married or related by blood.
- Men are also prohibited from looking at women’s bodies and faces, and the same applies to adult women looking at men’s bodies.
New restrictions for men
The new laws of morality also impose some restrictions on men.
Now They are required to cover their body from the navel to the knees. when they are outside their homes, since these parts of the body are considered awrah.
To the men They are not allowed to comb their hair in a way that goes against the sharia.
The Taliban have thus banned barbers in several provinces from shaving or trimming beards, claiming that this edict is in line with the sharia.
Under the new regulations, beards must be fist-length. The morality law also prohibits men from wearing ties.
Who are the ‘mohtasabeen’?
The mohtasabeen They are responsible for enforcing these laws and operate in all provinces.
With the enactment of the new legislation, their executive power has increased, especially since they have the full support of the Taliban leader.
They will be able to silence women’s voices or music coming from their homes, and ask men to shave or cut their hair if they do not comply with hairstyle restrictions.
The law says that morality police will also have the authority to prevent taxi drivers from driving women who are not accompanied by a close male relative, such as a father or adult brother, or who are not wearing the hijab as required by law. sharia.
Men and women are also not allowed to sit next to each other in a car.
Photography of living beings is not allowed.
The new law also prohibits creating, keeping or publishing images of living beingsand ranges from drawing a bird to carrying a photo of a family member.
According to the new rule, the purchase and sale of statues of living beings is also prohibited.
The law calls on morality police to prevent “misuse” of tape recorders and radios, such as playing music, which sharia consider haram.
The production and viewing of photographs and films of living beings is also prohibited.
But in contradiction to the new rules, Almost all Taliban government officials have appeared before the camerasincluding Mohammad Khaled Hanafi, the Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
What are the penalties?
The law says that if a person openly commits a “reprehensible act,” he or she will be subjected to a series of punishments, ranging from “being warned and frightened by God’s divine retribution,” up to a fine and imprisonment up to three days.
The enactment of the law has been the subject of much criticism.
“After decades of war and in the midst of a horrific humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve much more than to be threatened or imprisoned if they arrive late for prayers, look at someone of the opposite sex who is not a family member or possess a photograph of a loved one,” said Roza Otunbayeva, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
Does not apply throughout the country
The Taliban government has imposed a theocratic regime, but In some parts of the country, including the capital, Kabul, the law is not being systematically applied..
A source in the Ministry of Morality told BBC News Pashto that they were working on a new framework to be able to apply the statute more widely.
According to the source, once this plan is finalized, there will be more clarity in the application of the law.
In the rest of the country, most of its provisions are in force.
The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is one of the most active government bodies in Afghanistan.
And according to reports, last year the morality police temporarily detained more than 13,000 people for not complying with the sharia.
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