Taliban Tighten Restrictions on Women Under ‘Virtue and Vice’ Law
The Taliban’s Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs has issued a directive to mosque preachers and imams across Afghanistan, mandating the unconditional implementation of the group’s “Law of Enjoining Good and Forbidding Wrong.” A letter circulated in Badghis province underscores the Taliban’s stance, declaring women’s voices in public as “haram” and instructing religious leaders to promote these laws. Reports from Lal wa Sarjangal district in Ghor province relay disturbing responses from Taliban enforcers, suggesting that widows and self-reliant women would be better off dead than working outside.
The letter from the Ministry, accessed by the 8am newspaper, reveals increased restrictions on citizens, particularly women, under the guise of the new law. Per the edict from Taliban leader Hebatullah Akhundzada, women’s voices in public spaces are forbidden, and they must fully cover themselves. Non-compliance with these rules will result in severe punishment.
The directive instructs mosque clerics nationwide to advocate for the Taliban’s new legal framework from their pulpits, urging adherence. It specifies various prohibitions, including shaving beards, neglecting Islamic hijab, exposing women’s faces where sedition is feared, gambling, cockfighting, animal fights, music, and transporting women without a male guardian.
In Badghis, Taliban-affiliated clerics have been reportedly inciting men against women, with sermons prohibiting women from visiting markets unless only one eye is visible, to avoid fitna (temptation). This enforcement has led to the arrest and detention of several drivers over the past month for transporting women without a male guardian.
Simultaneously, Ghor province sources confirm the Taliban’s prohibition on women’s movement without a guardian, even affecting widows responsible for their families. According to local accounts, Taliban officials have suggested it would be preferable for such women to die than to work outside the home.
Over the past three years, the Taliban have imposed numerous restrictive measures on women, barring education beyond the sixth grade, denying rights to education, work, travel, and recreation. These actions have systematically marginalized women, exposing them to violence, forced marriages, suicide, and severe hunger.
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