United Nations and EU condemn new Taliban laws as women's rights evaporate in America's absence

The United Nations Office of the Commission on Human Rights and European Union have condemned a new Taliban law enacted last week that imposes repressive provisions on women. The new law requires that they cover and clothe their entire body and bans on their voices from being heard in public, while restricting their movement without a male relative.

ADN America reported on Aug. 26 that the Taliban enacted a new statute known as the “Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice,” which silences women in public and deprives them of their independence by restricting their movement without a male relative escort.

The new law, according to OHCHR’s Chief Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, “effectively attempting to render them into faceless, voiceless shadows.” 

The U.N. human rights chief said the new law was totalitarian in nature and unrealistic for any human being to endure.

“This is utterly intolerable,” she stressed. “We call on the de facto authorities to immediately repeal this legislation, which is in clear violation of Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law.”

Since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021 amid America’s chaotic withdrawal, they have implemented a series of laws and regulations giving them control every aspect of life under the premise of “eliminating vice.”

Some of the harshest laws have been aimed at, and adversely impacted women.

Repressive, vague requirements that target women and the media

The new Taliban law imposes a long list of repressive requirements for women, mandating that they remain fully clothed in public (their entire bodies), while banning the sound of their voices in public while restricting their movement without a male relative.

According to the new repressive law, the mere sound of a female voice outside her home is considered a violation, purportedly meaning that even if she were to cry out or scream for help she is in violation.

Shamdasani said that the Taliban’s efforts to silence women and restrict their movement is a devastating blow to human rights and only amplifies the blossoming human rights crisis—a domino effect of repression that began after the U.S. withdrew its forces in August 2021.

“Afghan women and girls invisible will only worsen the human rights and humanitarian crisis in the country,” a UNHCR report says.

Shamdasani said this is not a time for the Afghan people to become divided.

“Rather, this is a time to bring together all the people of Afghanistan, irrespective of their gender, religion or ethnicity, to help resolve the many challenges the country faces,” she urged.

While the new law targets women, it also requires men to grow beards, outlaws drivers from playing music, and restricts the media from publishing pictures of people.

Taliban agents have also been empowered to arbitrarily detain individuals and capriciously impose punishments they deem appropriate.

A ‘distressing vision’ for Afghanistan’s future without America

Roza Otunbayeva, the U.N.’s top envoy to the Middle Eastern country, also denounced the Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, describing it a “distressing vision” for the country’s future.

“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,” she asserted in an Aug. 27 statement.

Otunbayeva said the international community “had been seeking, in good faith” to constructively engage with the Taliban,” adding that “the world wants to see Afghanistan on the path of peace and prosperity, where all Afghans have a stake in their future, are citizens with rights and not just subjects to be disciplined.”

But since the United States withdrew from the country, the Taliban have only ruled their homeland with an iron hand holding Afghans in a state of fear and terror, which she asserts makes the goal of the United Nations “even harder.”

European Union says new law violates Afghanistan’s legal obligations and treaties by undermining due process

The European Union has also joined the United Nations in chorus of its criticism of the Taliban’s cruel reformations, saying it is “appalled” by the “so-called Law on Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.”

In an Aug. 26 statement released by the Western European coalition, the collective member state said the new law “extends severe restrictions on the life of Afghans” and “effectively deprives Afghan women of their fundamental right to freedom of expression.”

The EU said as a matter of legal analysis, “the decree further extends the power of the so-called Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice beyond an advisory role as it is now being given a clear mandate to enforce the decree … undermining Afghan people’s right to due process,” when taken together with the punishments imposed by the Taliban.

“This latest decision is another serious blow undermining the rights of Afghan women and girls, which we cannot tolerate,” the EU statement says. “We urge the Taliban to put an end to these systematic and systemic abuses against Afghan women and girls, which may amount to gender persecution, which is a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, to which Afghanistan is a State Party.”

The EU joined the U.N. in its assertion that the law is just one more move the Taliban have made since the United States withdrew that creates a moral block for the Western world and international community to recognize their government as legitimate.

Such recognition, according to UNSC Resolution 2721 (passed in 2023) would require the Taliban to respect the legal rights of all Afghani citizens and fulfill the country’s international obligations  in terms of its treatment of its people.

“The EU continues to stand by the women and girls of Afghanistan, and by all those in Afghanistan threatened by the Taliban,” the EU asserted.