UN Women, an entity which supports Afghan women and girls and advocates for their full rights, has raised serious concerns about a new morality law in Afghanistan that heavily restricts personal behavior and effectively erases women from public life.
“This is utterly intolerable,” said Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, on August 27th noting that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, wants this “egregious law to be immediately repealed.”
According to UN Women, the “Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice,” which enacted on August 21, 2024, grants extensive enforcement powers to the morality police. Since coming to power three years ago, the authorities in Afghanistan have issued over 70 directives that severely limit the rights of women and girls, causing significant harm to their lives.
“This law significantly deepens the already severe curtailment of the rights of Afghan women and girls, including requirements for women to cover their entire bodies and faces, and it forbids women’s voices in public,” noted a statement from UN Women on August 28th. “Women are also prohibited from interacting with non-Muslims, using public transport alone, and looking at men to whom they are not related by blood or marriage.”
The statement elaborated that only 1 per cent of women surveyed expressed they have “influence,” community decision making. Additionally, 64 per cent of women feel unsafe leaving their homes alone, compared to just 2 per cent of men, and 8 per cent know a woman or girl who has attempted suicide since August 2021. These repressive laws must be reversed, and authorities must uphold international law to protect women’s rights.
“I’ve raised my voice many times to change the current situation. But it seems that here, ears are deaf, and eyes are blind. No one sees us, and no one hears our voices,” tweeted Joweria, a former defense lawyer.
