Taliban vice and virtue laws provide ‘distressing vision’ for Afghanistan, warns top UN official

Islamabad, August 25

The Taliban’s new vice and virtue laws that include a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public provide a “distressing vision” for Afghanistan’s future, a top UN official warned on Sunday.

Roza Otunbayeva, who heads the UN mission in the country, said the laws extend the “ already intolerable restrictions ” on the rights of women and girls, with “even the sound of a female voice” outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers last Wednesday issued the country’s first set of laws to prevent vice and promote virtue. They include a requirement for a woman to conceal her face, body and voice outside the home.

The laws empower the Vice and Virtue Ministry to be at the front line of regulating personal conduct and administering punishments like warnings or arrest if its enforcers allege that Afghans have broken the laws.

“After decades of war and in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve much better than being threatened or jailed if they happen to be late for prayers, glance at a member of the opposite sex who is not a family member, or possess a photo of a loved one,” Otunbayeva said.

The mission said it was studying the newly ratified law and its implications for Afghans, as well as its potential impact on the UN and other humanitarian assistance.

Taliban officials were not immediately available for comment. In remarks broadcast on Sunday by state-controlled broadcaster RTA, Vice and Virtue Minister Mohammad Khaled Hanafi said nobody had the right to violate women’s rights based on inappropriate customs.

“We are committed to assure all rights of women based on Islamic law and anyone who has a complaint in this regard will be heard and resolved,” he added.