How Taliban's harsh new laws are setting women back decades

Aug. 30, 2024, 3:33 p.m.

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Prior to the fall of the US-backed Afghan government in August 2021, the Taliban’s intentions upon reclaiming power remained unclear to many. Some Western officials and observers hoped for a significant shift in the Taliban’s approach, contrasting their rule during the 1990s.

This time, it was hoped, a more sophisticated and pragmatic perspective might have supplanted the Taliban’s previously radical stance.

Some also argued that the global community had a moral obligation to engage with Afghanistan’s new leaders with cautious optimism. Engagement was considered crucial; any other approach risked isolating the country and its people, leading to economic hardship.

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During the negotiations leading to the February 2020 Doha agreement, the Taliban’s stance on Afghanistan’s post-settlement political landscape remained ambiguous. The group maintained this vague position throughout the subsequent intra-Afghan dialogues with the former Afghan government.

Then, in a press conference three days after Taliban forces seized control of Kabul, their spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, appeared to provide reassurances that the new regime would uphold women’s rights “within the framework of Islamic law”.

Over the past three years, the Taliban's fundamentalist regime has consistently struggled to gain genuine acceptance, despite initial efforts to project a more conciliatory image compared to their harsh rule in the 1990s.

However, what initially seemed to some as a reformed Taliban has increasingly mirrored the harsh and fundamentalist policies of the past as the regime's grip on power has solidified.

Taliban Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has declared that the group will reinstate the practice of stoning women to death. Source: Reuters Since 2021, Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of Afghanistan's Islamic Emirate, has progressively issued more than 50 decrees impacting most aspects of society.

Numerous hard-won achievements under the previous republic, such as freedom of expression and the press, have been suppressed. The regime has forcibly disappeared, imprisoned, or murdered many former government officials, despite proclaiming a general amnesty.

Their treatment of women has become so severe, including prohibiting education after the age of 12, that many journalists, academics and activists have labeled the resulting suppression “gender apartheid”.

Many female students have been forced to leave the country. Recently, a group of women medical students made headlines after receiving scholarships to continue their studies in the UK.

Advertisement The regime has also brought back public executions and floggings, reminiscent of their practices in the 1990s. A decree issued in March 2024 declared that the regime will resume public stoning.

The regime has implemented a series of new “vice and virtue” laws, which will be enforced by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (PVPV).

Until now, the government has primarily operated through decrees issued by the Taliban leadership. These decrees, while indicating the regime's increasingly extreme and authoritarian tendencies, have lacked specific details on implementation. This uncertainty has sometimes allowed local authorities a degree of flexibility, including the ability, in certain cases, to disregard decrees when it suits them.

Though previously unclear, the new law eliminates ambiguity and empowers the Taliban's morality police, making it applicable to every resident of Afghanistan.

The new laws impose particularly stringent regulations on women, prohibiting them from singing. They mandate the wearing of the hijab, requiring it to be made from a thick enough material to completely cover a woman's face and body, preventing any potential temptation for men.

Women's voices are considered a source of temptation, so they are now prohibited from speaking outside their homes. Even singing from within one's home is a violation of the law, subject to punishment. Women are even forbidden from making direct eye contact with any man who is not their husband or blood relative.

Anyone in society considered “capable” can enforce these regulations.

Reports from two “trustworthy” individuals are sufficient to initiate a prosecution. This raises concern, as it could lead to arbitrary accusations fueled by personal or political grudges.

Officially, enforcement will be carried out by the ministry's appointees, the morality police, also known as mohtaseb. The law emphasizes “fairness and kindness” as guiding principles for implementation. However, these terms lack clear definition, and the law is filled with subjective terminology, leaving interpretation to those enforcing it.

Newly implemented media regulations, part of a broader legislative package, prohibit content deemed "un-Islamic" and empower the morality police to enforce compliance with Sharia law. This includes preventing the publication of materials considered contrary to Islamic principles and images depicting living beings. This last provision could significantly impact the future of television broadcasting in Afghanistan.

These laws also ban public music and "un-Islamic" hairstyles. Men are required to grow beards at least as long as a fist. In a concerning development for future humanitarian efforts involving non-Muslim foreign workers, the law prohibits befriending, assisting, or emulating "nonbelievers."

Violators will face on-the-spot fines issued by the mohtaseb or imprisonment for one to three days. Repeat offenders will be prosecuted in the regime's courts. The morality police also has the authority to compel mosque attendance, with prosecution for those who disobey, regardless of whether they pray at home.

As recently as June, Taliban representatives participated in UN-sponsored talks in Doha, where spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called for the release of frozen Western funds and the easing of sanctions against the regime. He dismissed Western concerns regarding the regime's treatment of women as "cultural differences."

However, these new laws effectively eliminate any remaining distinctions between the current regime and its 1990s predecessor, a fundamentalist pariah that isolated Afghanistan from the world.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.