Just over three years after taking power in the wake of the disastrously-executed US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban government has issued its first formal vice laws, which include many sharp restrictions on the conduct of women, alongside broader societal rules.
“Inshallah, we assure you that this Islamic law will be of great help in the promotion of virtue and the elimination of vice,” said Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice spokesman Maulvi Abdul Ghafar Farooq on Thursday. ("Inshallah" translates as "If God wills it.") The Taliban created the ministry upon taking over the country, and it has the lead responsibility for enforcement via warnings and arrests.
Spanning 114 pages and comprising 35 articles, the new set of laws was published Wednesday after being approved by Afghanistan's reclusive Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. Focusing on women, Article 13 requires women's bodies to be veiled whenever they're in public, to avoid tempting or being tempted. It stipulates that the covering should be thick, loose and long, the Associated Press reported.
Lest women be corrupted, covering is required any time they're in the presence of non-Muslim men or women. It's now officially illegal for women to look at men unless they're married or blood relatives; men are likewise prohibited from looking at non-related women. Women are barred from letting their voices be heard singing or reading aloud in public. In 2022, the Taliban banned girls from attending secondary schools and universities.
Under Article 19, women are not allowed to be transported alone, and traveling, un-related men and women must be segregated. Passengers and their transporters are required to pray at required intervals. It is also illegal to publish images of living beings. In addition to barring practices that conflict with Islamic law, Afghanistan's virtue and vice ministry is charged with promoting the "five pillars of Islam":
- Shahada (Faith)
- Salah (Prayer)
- Zakat (Almsgiving)
- Sawm (Fasting during the Ramadan holy month)
- Hajj (Pilgrimage to Mecca)
Earlier this month, Afghanistan commemorated the three-year anniversary of the US withdrawal with military parades that showcased the enormous arsenal the Taliban inherited, which included Black Hawk helicopters, A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft, armored Humvees, and 600,000 other weapons such as grenade launchers, machine guns, and rifles.
With the formal imposition of the new vice laws, Afghanistan's women are back where they were before the US invasion and decades-long occupation that squandered the lives of 2,448 US service members and an astonishing $2.3 trillion. In addition to more than 150,000 Afghan dead -- only about a third of whom were the purported "bad guys" -- the country was left worse off by many measures, such as far higher child malnutrition and poverty levels.
Meanwhile, as Andrew Korybko noted in his profile of Afghanistan on the third anniversary of the Taliban's return to power, US sanctions are "imped[ing] the country’s socio-economic recovery...[with] hopes that the difficult living conditions...might one day give rise to a rebellion that could threaten the Taliban’s control."
Isn't there a succinct term for the victimization of civilians to accomplish political goals? In any event, maybe Operation Enduring Freedom should have been called Operation Enduring Misery.