The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has intensified its grip on the nation with the introduction of stringent new vice laws, severely restricting the freedoms of women. These laws, unveiled in August 2024, are part of a broader effort by the Taliban to enforce their interpretation of Islamic virtues and clamp down on what they consider immoral behavior.
The new regulations, outlined in a 114-page document, include a particularly oppressive edict forbidding women from looking at men to whom they are not related by blood or marriage. This provision, a stark example of the regime's increasingly draconian stance, is intended to prevent what the Taliban describes as “temptation” and the “corruption” of women. In a deeply conservative society where gender segregation is already strictly enforced, this law further isolates women from public life.
The Taliban publish vice laws that ban women’s voices and bare faces in public https://t.co/Cw08jUELJ8
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 23, 2024
Additionally, women are now required to cover their entire bodies, including their faces, whenever they are in public. The Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, approved these measures, which mandate that women’s clothing must not be thin, tight, or short. Any violation of these dress codes could result in severe punishment, including arrest.
The regime has also imposed a ban on women’s voices in public spaces, deeming them “intimate” and therefore unsuitable for public exposure. This means that women are forbidden from singing, reciting poetry, or even reading aloud in any public setting. The Taliban’s interpretation of Sharia law further forbids women from traveling alone without a male guardian, effectively ending the possibility of independent travel for Afghan women.
In a bizarre twist of modern warfare, the Taliban, notorious for their strict enforcement of medieval laws and brutal suppression of freedoms, have found a new battlefield: TikTok. Instead of enforcing their infamous bans and meting out punishment, some fighters are now… pic.twitter.com/o4GnX8eviS
— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) August 18, 2024
In addition to these gender-specific restrictions, the Taliban's new laws have broader implications for Afghan society. They have banned music, prohibited the publication of images of living beings, and outlawed social interactions between men and women who are not related. The regime has tasked the Ministry of the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice with the enforcement of these laws, giving it sweeping powers to monitor and punish those who violate them.
The international community, particularly human rights organizations, has condemned these new restrictions as a gross violation of women’s rights. Fiona Frazer, head of the human rights service at the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, expressed significant concern over the Taliban's increasing oversight and the climate of fear and intimidation it is creating for all Afghans, especially women and girls. Frazer highlighted that the Taliban’s ongoing crackdown on women’s rights not only stifles their voices but also erases their presence from public life.
Since taking over Afghanistan in 2021 following the withdrawal of U.S. and coalition forces, the Taliban has steadily rolled back the rights of women, despite initial promises of a more moderate approach. The re-establishment of the Ministry of the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has been central to this regression, with the ministry increasingly dictating the minutiae of daily life, from dress codes to personal conduct.
The latest round of restrictions is seen by many as a deliberate effort to push women out of public life entirely. The laws have sparked widespread fear among Afghan women, who are already struggling with the Taliban’s ban on secondary and higher education for girls. While some moderate voices within the Taliban have occasionally suggested relaxing certain bans, the hardline faction continues to dominate, leaving little hope for change in the near future.
