Afghan women banned from baring their faces and speaking in public

By Linda Bordoni

Volker Turk said the new “vice and virtue laws” passed by the Taliban government last week “cement policies that completely erase women’s presence in public, silencing their voices and depriving them of their individual autonomy, effectively attempting to render them into faceless, voiceless shadows.

The Taliban on Monday rejected the UN’s concerns and criticism from the UN over new vice and virtue laws which ban women from baring their faces and having their voices heard in public spaces.

In a statement released by the main spokesman for the Taliban's government, Zabihullah Mujahid warned against "arrogance" from those who may not be familiar with Islamic Sharia law, particularly non-Muslims who might express reservations or objections. He said the Taliban issued the laws to prevent vice and promote virtue and demanded “respectful acknowledgement of Islamic values.

Intolerable restrictions

The head of the UN mission in the country, UNAMA, described the laws as providing a "distressing vision" for Afghanistan's future. 

She said the laws extend the "already intolerable restrictions" on the rights of women and girls, with "even the sound of a female voice" outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation.

The passing of the new laws comes just days after the Taliban barred the United Nations-appointed special rapporteur, Richard Bennett from entering Afghanistan and accused the human rights watchdog of “spreading propaganda.”

Bennett was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2022 to monitor Afghanistan’s human rights situation after the Taliban took over the previous year.

Since then, Afghan women and girls have been grappling with increasingly restrictive decrees limiting their participation in all aspects of social, economic, and political life. These include restricted freedom of movement, restrictive dress codes, no protection from violence, and forced marriage.