Taliban leaders have passed new “virtue” laws that require Afghan women to completely cover their faces and hands, and ban them from looking at men in public. Women are now banned from speaking, singing, reading the Quran or looking at men they don’t know while in public. The Taliban in 2021, after 20 years of US-led NATO intervention in Afghanistan, seized power as US President Joe Biden unceremoniously pulled troops from the ground. The laws, approved by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, passed Wednesday, a Taliban spokesperson confirmed to the Associated Press. They were formed by a ministry formed in 2021 dedicated to the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” in Afghanistan.“Inshallah we assure you that this Islamic law will be of great help in the promotion of virtue and the elimination of vice,” said ministry spokesman Maulvi Abdul Ghafar Farooq on Thursday.. The AP, which viewed the 114-page legislation first-hand, reported the laws “regulate personal conduct” and encompass “aspects of everyday life,” including public transportation, music, shaving and celebrations.The legislation includes 25 articles on the Taliban’s version of “vice and virtue.” The outlet noted Article 13, which specifically pertains to women, states “it is mandatory for a woman to veil her body at all times in public and that a face covering is essential to avoid temptation and tempting others.”“Clothing should not be thin, tight or short.”The same section says women must “cover themselves in front of non-Muslim males and females to avoid being corrupted.”“A woman’s voice is deemed intimate and so should not be heard singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public. It is forbidden for women to look at men they are not related to by blood or marriage and vice versa,” reads the Taliban law, according to the AP. Other notable articles include a ban on the “publication of images of living beings” (Article 17) and the prohibition of music, women traveling alone, and the “mixing of men and women who are not related to each other” (Article 19). On public transportation both passengers and drivers are required to pray at designated times.Taliban leaders in their promotion of “virtue” require Afghanis to “pray, align the character and behavior of Muslims with Islamic law, encourage women to wear hijab, and invite people to comply with the five pillars of Islam.”Punishment for breaking the laws include warnings or arrest.
