(ANALYSIS) On Aug. 21, 2024, the Taliban published its new law to “promote virtue and eliminate vice” that sets up rules for everyday life and adds to the litany of restrictions on women.

Over the last three years, the Taliban introduced tens and tens of decrees barring women and girls from all activities and engagements outside their homes, whether education, employment, travel without mahram or going to parks, among others. In response to the new laws, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) issued a statement raising concerns about this “morality law” which imposes wide-ranging and far-reaching restrictions on personal conduct and provides morality police with broad powers of enforcement.

The new law, “The Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice”, contains 35 articles detailing significant restrictions on the Afghan population. It extends the already severe and omnipresent restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls.

Reportedly, Article 13 imposes that it is mandatory for a woman to veil her body at all times in public. A face covering is said to be essential. This is to avoid temptation and tempting others.

Women are to cover themselves in front of non-Muslim males and females. A woman’s voice is deemed intimate, and as such, women are not to be heard singing, reciting or reading aloud in public. Women are not allowed to look at men they are not related to by blood or marriage and vice versa. Article 19 bans the playing of music and the transportation of solo female travelers, among others.

The new law has worrying implications for the right to freedom of religion or belief by ignoring the full diversity of Afghanistan’s religious communities. This religious diversity has been severely impacted by the Taliban takeover in August 2021, with many religious minorities fleeing the country or going underground.

The new law will put further pressure on the already disappearing religious minorities. The law also places additional restrictions on the work of journalists and media. Among others, Article 17 bans the publication of images of living beings.

Roza Otunbayeva, the special representative of the secretary general and head of UNAMA, commented: “It is a distressing vision for Afghanistan’s future, where moral inspectors have discretionary powers to threaten and detain anyone based on broad and sometimes vague lists of infractions. ... After decades of war and in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve much better than being threatened or jailed if they happen to be late for prayers, glance at a member of the opposite sex who is not a family member, or possess a photo of a loved one.”

UNAMA is studying the newly ratified law and its implications for the Afghan people, as well as its potential impact on the United Nations and other vital humanitarian assistance for the country. While greatly negative about the law, UNAMA raised that a few of the articles in the law do constitute positive steps and contribute to better protection of orphans and young boys.

One of the provisions outlaws the mistreatment of orphans. Another one outlaws the practice of Bacha Bazi, a highly controversial (and illegal under international law) practice of using young boys for personal entertainment and sexual abuse. However, this is as far as it goes in terms of the elimination of vice. The law as a whole does not protect virtue and only legalizes vice.

The Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice adds to the institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination that women and girls are subjected to in Afghanistan. This regime of gender apartheid will continue as the international community does not do enough to raise the situation of women and girls, and critics continue to be silenced.

Earlier in August, the Taliban barred the U.N. Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett from entering Afghanistan. The U.N. Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett has been highly critical of the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls, including by calling it gender apartheid and seeking wide-ranging responses.

The rights of women and girls in Afghanistan cannot be ignored as the international community considers its engagements with the Taliban. By doing some, the international community ignores its own commitments to human rights for everyone everywhere — the real promotion of virtue and elimination of vice.

This piece was republished from Forbes with permission.

Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab is a human rights advocate, author and co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response. She’s authored the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 UN reports. She works on the topic of genocide and persecution of ethnic and religious minorities around the world. She is on X @EwelinaUO.