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Press briefing notes Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Afghanistan: Repressive law must be immediately repealed

27 August 2024

22 August 2024. The Taliban in Afghanistan have enforced new laws mandating that women must cover their bodies and faces in public, citing these measures as necessary to promote virtue and prevent vice, the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said  EPA-EFE/QUDRATULLAH RAZWAN

From

Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ravina Shamdasani

Location

Geneva

The newly-adopted law on “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” by the de facto authorities in Afghanistan cements policies that completely erase women’s presence in public – silencing their voices, and depriving them of their individual autonomy, effectively attempting to render them into faceless, voiceless shadows.

This is utterly intolerable. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk calls for this egregious law to be immediately repealed.

The long list of repressive provisions that this law imposes on women reinforces a number of existing restrictions that violate their fundamental human rights, including their freedom of movement, their freedom of expression, and their right to live free from discrimination. The law includes the requirement to wear clothes that completely cover their bodies from head to toe, including their faces; a ban for transport providers on transporting women unless they are accompanied by a male relative; and the prohibition on women’s voices being heard in public.

Other restrictions in the law, which are vaguely defined, affect other human rights, such as the right to freely practice one’s religion. The law also grants State agents broad, discretionary powers to detain people, impose punishments on them, or refer matters to courts.

The law further tightens the grip on the media sector, with a ban on publishing images of human beings, presumably also those of de facto officials.

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.

Disempowering and rendering invisible and voiceless half the population of Afghanistan will only worsen the human rights and humanitarian crisis in the country. 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.

For more information and media requests, please contact:

In Geneva
Ravina Shamdasani - + 41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org 
Thameen Al-Kheetan - + 41 76 223 77 62 / thameen.alkheetan@un.org

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