Brussels condemns Taliban’s law prohibiting Afghan women’s public expression

Brussels –
Finally joining the rest of the world community, European Union institutions have denounced new laws that drastically restrict the freedom of Afghanistan’s civilian population, particularly women. Women in the Asian country will literally no longer be able to make their voices heard in public or show any portion of their bodies (including their faces), which will have to be entirely covered.

The European Union is “baffled” by the new law on the “propagation of virtue and prevention of vice” that was put into effect last Wednesday (Aug. 21) by the Taliban, which, among other things, has imposed not only a strict dress code for Afghan women—requiring them not to leave any part of their bodies or faces uncovered—but also a ban on hearing their voices in singing, acting, or reading in public and, in general, in any place other than a private home. It is also forbidden for women to look directly at men who are not their relatives or family members, and vice versa. 

A press release from the bloc’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, states that among the reasons for the greatest concern is the fact that “the decree further extends the power of the so-called Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice beyond an advisory role, as he has now a clear mandate to enforce the decree,” which will most likely open the door to new violent actions by Taliban law enforcement.

“This, together with the restrictions imposed,” the statement continues, “violates legal obligations and treaties to which Afghanistan is a party, including by undermining the Afghan people’s right to due process.” The EU, through the head of its External Service, therefore urges the authorities in Kabul to “end these systematic abuses against Afghan women and girls, which could amount to gender-based persecution, which is a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” which Afghanistan has ratified.

Brussels thus joins a long list of governments and international organizations that have already denounced the new rules decreed by the Taliban as a violation of the most basic human rights. The United Nations, for example, has reiterated that as long as such restrictions on Afghan girls and women persist, it will be virtually impossible to consider the Taliban as the legitimate authorities of the Central Asian country.