Taliban's War on Women's Rights Intensifies
The Taliban's latest "vice and virtue" law strips Afghan women of their most basic rights, silencing their voices and erasing them from public life.
Since returning to power three years ago, the Taliban have been enforcing oppressive laws that violate people’s freedoms and human rights, especially those of women and girls.
But a newly passed “vice and virtue” law goes further. It is among the most repressive and discriminatory measures ever enacted by the Islamist fundamentalist group.
As a human rights activist from Afghanistan, and as a scholar working on Afghanistan since 2002, we have been documenting the Taliban’s attacks against women for decades.
The new law seeks to completely silence women in public. They are prohibited from speaking, singing or praying aloud. The law also attempts to literally erase them from view, ordering women to cover every part of their body and face in public.
The edict suppresses most of women’s political, civil and human rights guaranteed under international law. And if women resist, it orders the use of violence to repress them.