Reactions to the Taliban's New Law: This Law Is a Brazen Attack on Human Rights

In a report published on Tuesday (August 27), Human Rights Watch stated that this law attacks the dignity and independence of women and further contributes to their exclusion from society.

The organization emphasized that this Taliban law represents "gross gender discrimination" and makes Afghan women extremely vulnerable.

Similarly, Amnesty International, in a statement, called the law a "brazen attack" on human rights and demanded its immediate repeal.

The statement highlighted that this law not only institutionalizes the restrictions imposed on Afghan women and girls but also introduces new limitations, such as deeming women's voices in public as immoral.

Amnesty International stressed that this law violates Afghanistan's international obligations and added, "The Taliban must respect, protect, and fulfill Afghanistan's commitments under the human rights treaties that the country has signed."

This comes as the Taliban's "Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" law considers women's voices, faces, bodies, and appearance in public as "awrah" (something that must be covered). The law has sparked widespread reactions from protesting women and human rights organizations.

However, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban's spokesperson, said yesterday that protesting against the new law is "impudence" and that Muslims should educate themselves about these laws, which are "sharia rulings." Additionally, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, the acting head of the Taliban's Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, stated in a meeting in Sar-e Pol province yesterday that the international community should refrain from "unnecessary criticisms."