Afghanistan’s Taliban this week formally codified a long set of rules governing morality, from requiring women to cover their faces and men to grow beards to banning car drivers from playing music, the justice ministry said.
The rules, described as in line with Islamic Sharia law and to be enforced by the Ministry of Morality, are based on an order issued by the Taliban’s supreme spiritual leader in 2022 and have now been officially published as law, a Justice Ministry spokesman said.
The Ministry of Morality, formally called the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and the Propagation of Virtue, is already enforcing similar morality requirements and says it has detained thousands of people for violations. It was not immediately clear whether the publication of the rules would lead to stricter enforcement.
The Taliban’s restrictions on women and freedom of expression have been sharply criticised by rights groups and several foreign governments since the former insurgents regained control of Afghanistan in 2021.
Western countries led by Washington have said the Taliban’s path to formal recognition will remain blocked unless they change their stance on the issue of women’s rights and open high schools for girls.
The Taliban say they respect women’s rights according to their interpretation of Islamic law and local customs and that these are internal matters that should be resolved locally.
The 35-article morality law was officially implemented and published on Wednesday after it was approved by supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, Justice Ministry spokesman Barkatullah Rasoli said.
“According to this law, the ministry (for the prevention of evil and propagation of virtue) is obliged to promote goodness and prohibit evil in accordance with Islamic Sharia,” the Justice Ministry said in a statement.
These requirements include allowing women to wear clothing that fully covers their bodies and faces, and preventing men from shaving, as well as from abandoning prayers and religious fasting.
The Justice Ministry said penalties for violations include “admonitions, warnings of divine punishment, verbal threats, confiscation of property, detention in public prisons for periods of one hour to three days, and other punishments deemed appropriate.”
It says that if such measures do not improve a person’s behaviour, he will be referred to court for further action.
“Many of these rules were already in place, but less formally, and now they’re being formalized. I think that’s indicative of what we’ve been seeing over the last three years, that the crackdown has been steadily and slowly escalating,” said Heather Barr, associate director of the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch.
The law also instructs drivers not to transport women without a male guardian. They expect the media to follow Sharia law and ban the publication of images of living beings.
Morality Ministry officials have been monitoring Afghans across the country for alleged crimes for the past three years. The ministry said this week that it had detained more than 13,000 people last year, though it did not specify the alleged crimes or the gender of those detained. It said about half of the detentions were for 24 hours.
The Taliban suspended Afghanistan’s previous constitution when they took power in 2021 after foreign forces withdrew and said they would rule the country according to Sharia law.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the morality law passed this week is the seventh set of codified laws, which also include others relating to property, financial services and the prevention of begging.
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