Afghanistan legal reform: Taliban silencing women and girls

The Taliban rulers in Afghanistan last week imposed a new round of wide-ranging restrictions that attempt to control people's lives, behaviors and social interactions.

The new laws hit Afghan women and girls particularly hard, requiring women to hide not only their faces and bodies, but also their voice outside the home.

They deepen the already pervasive restrictions on women and girls in Afghan society, and expand the Islamic fundamentalist group's control over Afghans' private lives.

The United Nations and rights groups have strongly criticized the latest rules.

Roza Otunbayeva, who heads the UN mission in the country, said the laws provide a "distressing vision" for Afghanistan's future and extend the "already intolerable restrictions " on the rights of women and girls, with "even the sound of a female voice" outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation.

Banishing women from public life

Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have rolled back progress achieved in the previous two decades when it came to women's rights.

They have banished women and girls from almost all areas of public life.

Girls have been barred from attending school beyond sixth grade, and women have been prohibited from local jobs and nongovernmental organizations. The Taliban have ordered the closure of beauty salons and barred women from going to gyms and parks. Women also can't go out without a male guardian.

The introduction of these laws signals not just control, but a consolidation of the Taliban's authoritarian grip, said Fereshta Abbasi, a researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

"This Taliban law deals with the most minor human interactions and extends beyond monitoring personal relationships in society," she told DW.

"Our concern is that the Taliban will implement this law in the worst possible way. There will be no such thing as privacy for the citizens of Afghanistan, and this law creates an open platform for further human rights violations in the country."

Enormous power and impunity

The new stipulations also affect men, as they include rules on men's clothing and beard length.

Furthermore, they ban homosexuality, animal fighting, cultural celebrations, playing music in public and non-Muslim holidays, as well as the use of fireworks, among other things.

Abbasi pointed out that the Taliban's Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Propagation of Virtue enjoys enormous power and impunity.

The ministry said this month that it had dismissed over 280 security personnel over the past year for failure to grow a beard and detained more than 13,000 people for "immoral acts," in line with their interpretation of the Sharia, or Islamic law.

"In a situation where there is no such thing as a trial in Afghanistan, in most cases, members of this ministry can punish individuals directly, which violates most basic human rights laws and principles," Abbasi said.

'A new kind of war'

Amira (name changed), who asked not to reveal her real name due to security concerns, is a former journalism student at a university in Kabul.

The young woman, who has been unable to continue her studies since the Taliban slapped restrictions on women's education, expressed concern about the current situation. "After so many years of war, we still do not feel safe and now face a new kind of war in the name of religion. We are being removed from society, living as if in a prison while women elsewhere continue to progress."

Roya (name changed), who works for a refugee organization in Nangarhar province, shared a similar view.

"As an Afghan woman, it is difficult to imagine living under these conditions. If I, as a working woman, feel oppressed, how must it be for women who primarily stay at home? We do not expect our situation to improve in the future and we will be forced to take our own lives."

Despite widespread criticism, the militant regime has so far not shown any signs it is willing to drop the hardline policies.

The group's reclusive supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has instead insisted that Afghan women are provided with a "comfortable and prosperous" life.

Informal ties with Taliban

The international community has strongly condemned the Taliban's treatment of women.

And countries around the world have made any engagement with Afghanistan conditional on the Taliban improving things such as girls' access to education, human rights and inclusive government.

Still, the group has managed to establish de facto diplomatic ties with several countries in the region, including Russia, China, Pakistan, India and various Central Asian states.

And the United Arab Emirates last week accepted the credentials of a Taliban-appointed diplomat as the ambassador of Afghanistan, making the Gulf state the second country after China to accept a Taliban envoy at that level.

The UAE said the move is part of its broader efforts to provide humanitarian aid and promote stability. But it has raised questions about the implications of engaging with an Islamic fundamentalist regime that openly violates human rights.

Debate about way forward

Even in Germany, the debate over how to deal with the Taliban is growing more contentious.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has strongly criticized the new laws as "almost 100 pages of misogyny" that effectively silence half of Afghanistan's population.

She has strongly rejected calls for Berlin to establish relations with the Taliban regime. 

Nevertheless, opposition parties, including the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), are pushing for a more pragmatic approach.

They argue that Germany should engage with the Taliban to facilitate the deportation of rejected Afghan asylum-seekers and criminal refugees.

This proposal has sparked controversy, with critics warning that it risks legitimizing the Taliban's rule and undermining Germany's commitment to human rights.

Against this backdrop, the future for Afghan women and girls appears increasingly dire.

Rights groups, meanwhile, say the international community must move beyond rhetoric and take concrete action to support Afghan women and hold the Taliban accountable for their actions.

Helay Asad and Ghazanfar Adeli contributed to this report.

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru