In Afghanistan, recently enacted Taliban laws impose further restrictions in the nation and negatively impact human rights for men, women, and children.[1] The intent of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Law is to prevent leading men into temptation at the expense of the Afghan community.[2] This law mandates that women’s faces must not to be seen, and their voices must not to be heard, even from inside their own homes.[3] As Taliban power in the Afghanistan government rises, the rights and autonomy of Afghan women decline.[4] These laws actively impact the rights of women, men, children, LGBTQIA+ communities, and religious minorities in Afghanistan.[5] International communities are responding to the Taliban, with the United Nations calling for full compliance with Afghanistan’s international human rights obligations and accountability for ongoing violations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”), which Afghanistan has ratified.[6]
From 2001 to 2021, the Taliban were removed from governmental power in Afghanistan.[7] During those twenty years, the overall human rights situation, especially for women, improved.[8] Women leaders were elected to represent their communities, maternal mortality was cut in half, and an entire generation of girls were born into a country where they had the legal right to go to school and hold jobs.[9] Since the Taliban have regained power in Kabul in 2021, they have reimposed most of the restrictions that were in place in the 1990s.[10] These restrictions currently ban women from receiving an education beyond the age of twelve years old, working at a non-governmental organization, and dictate how a woman may present themselves.[11] These new laws demonstrate old patterns of abuse and signal an era of oppression for Afghan women.[12]
Issued on August 21, 2024, the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Laws outline the orders and obligations for everyone living in Afghanistan.[13] These laws address prohibitions against women, men, LGBTQIA+ communities, and religious minorities.[14] Article 13 outlines the requirements for how women are permitted to appear and how they must cover themselves, in both public and private spaces.[15] If a woman leaves home because of some urgent need, she is duty-bound to hide her voice, face, and body.[16] A woman must cover her entire body, including her entire face, to prevent fitna, described as social disorder or chaos, that can facilitate sin from occurring.[17] A woman’s clothing should not be thin, short, or tight.[18] It is the responsibility of women to hide their bodies and their faces from men who are not their close male relatives, or mahram.[19] Women’s voices must also be concealed; they may not sing, recite poetry, or speak out loud.[20] The sound of a woman’s voice or any music cannot emanate from inside their own home.[21] It is forbidden for unrelated men to look at a woman’s body or face; likewise, women are not allowed to look at strange men.[22] Under Article 14, a man must cover from his waist down to his knees, and his clothing should not be very tight, nor should certain parts of the body be visible.[23]
Consensual sex acts, particularly those involving LGBTQIA+ individuals, are also classified as a “wrongful act.”[24] Some wrongful acts include consensual adultery, fornication, lesbianism, anal sex, and creating a situation conducive to adultery, fornication, lesbianism, or anal sex.[25] Wrongful acts affecting religious minorities include omitting or delaying one’s mandatory and obligatory prayers, not praying in congregation, neglecting obligatory fasts, befriending non-Muslims and assisting them, and observing the winter solstice, fireworks or other festivals lacking an Islamic foundation.[26]
The implications of these laws are tremendous for the Afghan community and their day-to-day reality. Women must be completely physically covered, with their faces concealed, and they are required to remain silent and prevent men from looking at them or any other occurrences of fitna.[27] LGBTQIA+ communities and religious minorities appear largely targeted by these laws as well; one may not engage in certain types of consensual sex, and one must adhere to Islamic religious practices.[28] If an Afghan man or woman violates one of these laws, the enforcers, known as muhtasibin, are duty-bound to punish any person who disobeys the order within the laws.[29] These enforcers have extensive powers and considerable discretion to punish wrongdoers, allowing them to impose penalties ranging from verbal admonishment and fines, to imprisonment or any punishment they personally deem appropriate.[30]
As the Taliban continue to attack women’s autonomy, these restrictions on women’s rights exacerbate Afghanistan’s crisis.[31] These laws strip women of their ability to make decisions and express themselves. Women are not treated with agency; they are treated as a source of sin for men, as something to prevent, to diminish. A presence so loud, it must be silenced. This ideology represents a grave international regression on womens’ rights. Sahar Fetrat, an Afghan researcher for the Human Rights Watch, said perfectly, “reducing their voices and bodies to things and sources of sin is an egregious act of sexualizing and objectifying women. These laws attack women’s personhood and autonomy, contributing to their further erasure from society.”[32]
Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Council have expressed profound concern over the Taliban’s recent enactment of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Law, which signals a further serious regression in human rights in Afghanistan and an escalation of the group’s oppressive regime by introducing even more repressive measures, such as punishing women for singing or speaking.[33] It further criminalizes and persecutes LGBTQIA+ people and restricts the rights of religious minorities, forbidding association or assistance to “non-believers.”[34] Experts in the international community urge all international actors to develop a “strategy on Afghanistan which places human rights, including women’s human rights and gender equality, at the center.”[35] Richard Bennett, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, calls on the Taliban to reverse discriminatory and repressive policies.[36] Bennett also calls on the international community to incorporate practical actions to support the people of Afghanistan, urging States not to normalize relations with the Taliban until there are human rights improvements.[37]
While these laws attempt to forcibly silence Afghan women, many women continue to sing in secret, using their voice as a powerful form of resistance.[38] Across the internet, Afghan women also protest by singing, something that would be considered a crime in their homeland.[39] One Afghan woman, Fatima Etimadi, says “every day, the Taliban seeks new ways to restrict women . . . they’re making women die while they’re alive.”[40] The Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Law deepens the Taliban’s already oppressive grip on the lives of Afghans.[41] “The continued failure to end these violations wrongly suggests that the fundamental rights of Afghan women and girls are negotiable, particularly their rights to equality, security, and dignity, it also seriously undermines the prospects of a stable, inclusive, and prosperous Afghanistan.”[42] The international community can support Afghan women by applying coordinated diplomatic pressure on the Taliban, allocating humanitarian aid directly to women and girls, providing direct support to Afghan organizations that continue to operate under extremely challenging conditions, engaging respected Islamic scholars and leaders to publicly challenge the Taliban’s interpretation of Islamic law, supporting initiatives that highlight the compatibility of Islam with gender equality, supporting independent Afghan media outlets, and raising awareness.[43] The international community must advocate for the restoration of the voices of Afghan women; they are essential to the future of their country, and their rights must be protected.[44]
[1] قانون امر به معروف و نهی از منکر, )Afg.), translated into English by John Butt, The Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Law, Afghanistan Analysts Network, (Aug. 31, 2024), https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/en/reports/political-landscape/the-propagation-of-virtue-and-prevention-of-vice-law-translated-into-english/.
[2] Id.
[3] Id. at art. 13.1-3, 22.10.
[4] Marti Flacks & Lauren Burke Preputnik, New Century, Old Taliban, Center for Strategic & International Studies, (Aug. 18, 2022), https://www.csis.org/analysis/new-century-old-taliban.
[5] U.N.H.R., New Morality Law Affirms Taliban’s Regressive Agenda, Experts Call for Concerted Action, (Aug. 30, 2024), https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/08/new-morality-law-affirms-talibans-regressive-agenda-experts-call-concerted.
[6] Id.; G.A. Res. 217 (III)A, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Dec. 10, 1948), https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights#:~:text=Universal%20Declaration%20of%20Human%20Rights%20%7C%20United%20Nations.
[7] Supra note 4.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] International Crisis Group, Taliban Restrictions on Women’s Rights Deepen Afghanistan’s Crisis, Asia Report N 329, (Feb. 23, 2023), https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/afghanistan/329-taliban-restrictions-womens-rights-deepen-afghanistans-crisis; Ayaz Gul, Afghan Girls Endure 1,000 Days Without School Under Taliban Rule, VOA South & Central Asia, (Jun. 12, 2024), https://www.voanews.com/a/afghan-girls-endure-1-000-days-without-school-under-taliban-rule/7653958.html.
[12] Supra note 4.
[13] Supra note 1.
[14] Id.
[15] Id. at art. 13.
[16] Id. at art. 13.8.
[17] Id. at art. 13.1-2.
[18] Id. at art. 13.4.
[19] Id. at art. 13.5.
[20] Id. at art. 13.3.
[21] Id. at art. 22.10.
[22] Id. at art. 13.7.
[23] Id. at art. 14.1, 14.3.
[24] Id.
[25] Id. at art. 22.1-.4, 22.7.
[26] Id. at art. 22.14-.17, 22.20-.21.
[27] Id.
[28] Id.
[29] Id. at art. 16.2.
[30] Id. at art. 24.7.
[31] Supra note 10.
[32] Sahar Fetrat, Taliban’s Relentless Assault on Afghan Women’s Bodies, Autonomy, Human Rights Watch (Aug. 27, 2024 5:40pm EDT), https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/08/27/talibans-relentless-assault-afghan-womens-bodies-autonomy.
[33] Supra note 5.
[34] Id.
[35] Id.
[36] U.N.H.R., Afghanistan: Expert Urges a Comprehensive Human Rights-Centred Action Plan, (Nov. 1, 2024), https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/11/afghanistan-expert-urges-comprehensive-human-rights-centred-action-plan.
[37] Id.
[38] Donesha “Dana” Simon, Voices Unheard: The Taliban’s War on Afghan Women’s Freedom, https://www.womensvoicesnow.org/voices-unheard.
[39] Diaa Hadid, Fariba Akbari & Khwaga Ghani, Afghan Women Sing to Protest a Law that Orders Them to Keep Quiet, National Public Radio (Sep. 12, 2024), https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2024/09/12/g-s1-21533/aghanistan-taliban-women-ban-singing-law.
[40] Id.
[41] Supra note 5.
[42] Id.
[43] Maryam Rahmani, The Taliban’s ‘Vice and Virtue’ Order, Womankind Worldwide (Sep. 3, 2024), https://www.womankind.org.uk/the-talibans-vice-and-virtue-order/.
[44] Id.
