The UN human rights chief is calling on the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan to immediately repeal a series of laws that he says “seek to turn women into shadows.” UN High Commissioner Volker Turk was referring to the adoption of new laws in Afghanistan last week that prohibit women from showing their faces or speaking in public.
By Linda Bordoni
Volker Turk said the new “vice and virtue laws” passed by the Taliban government last week “cement a policy that completely erases women’s presence in public, silences their voices and deprives them of their individual autonomy. This is an attempt to de facto turn them into faceless and voiceless shadows.”
The Taliban on Monday rejected UN concerns and criticism over new vices and virtues laws that ban women from uncovering their faces and raising their voices in public spaces.
In a statement issued by the Taliban government’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, warned against the “arrogance” of those unfamiliar with Islamic Sharia, especially non-Muslims, who might express reservations or objections. He said the Taliban had enacted the laws to prevent vice and promote virtue and called for a “respectful recognition of Islamic values”.
Unbearable restrictions
The head of the UN mission in the country, UNAMA, described the laws as a “worrying vision” for Afghanistan’s future.
She said the laws extended the “already intolerable restrictions” on the rights of women and girls and that “even the sound of a female voice” outside the home was apparently considered a moral offense.
The adoption of the new laws comes just days after the Taliban denied UN-appointed Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett entry into Afghanistan, accusing the human rights organization of “spreading propaganda.”
Bennett was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2022 to monitor the human rights situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power the previous year.
Since then, Afghan women and girls have had to contend with increasingly restrictive laws that limit their participation in all aspects of social, economic and political life. These include limited freedom of movement, restrictive dress codes, no protection from violence and forced marriage.
