The United Nations expressed concern over the enactment of a morality law by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban that imposes severe restrictions on personal freedom, silences women in public, and requires them to cover their faces.
“It is a distressing vision for Afghanistan’s future, where moral inspectors have discretionary powers to threaten and detain anyone based on broad and sometimes vague lists of infractions,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
The Islamist Taliban announced the ratification of their Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice Wednesday, forbidding women from singing, reciting poetry, or speaking aloud in public and requiring them to keep their faces and bodies covered at all times.
The promulgation of the 35-article law occurred after the Taliban had prohibited Afghan girls from continuing education beyond the sixth grade and imposed extensive limitations on women’s ability to work in most occupations and participate in public activities.
The U.N. agency said it was studying the newly ratified law, its implications for Afghans, and its potential impact on the U.N. and other humanitarian assistance. Employment-related Taliban curbs on women also prohibit them from seeking jobs in U.N. agencies and humanitarian groups.
The U.N. mission renewed its call for Afghan authorities to “swiftly reverse the policies and practices” restricting “the enjoyment by women and girls of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
Taliban authorities did not immediately respond to the criticism of the morality law.
