Attachments
About this update
This update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan covering the period from July to September 2024 is based on monitoring undertaken by UNAMA’s Human Rights Service in accordance with its mandate from the UN Security Council.
Law on Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice
On 21 August, the de facto Ministry of Justice published the Law on Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (“the Law”), conferring responsibility for its implementation to the de facto Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The Law codifies a number of restrictions that had already been issued as decrees, edicts and instructions by the de facto authorities, such as: requirements for women to wear a hijab and cover their faces outside of the home; and for men to grow beards and attend congregational prayers at the mosque; bans on certain holidays such as Nowruz and Yalda (winter solstice), on playing music inside a vehicle and on depictions of images of living beings.
The Law also appears to broaden some preexisting restrictions, and adds new ones. The most notable measures include:
• Drivers of commercial and private vehicles should not offer to drive women unaccompanied by a mahram (male guardian). The previous instruction on the matter required women to be accompanied by a mahram for travel of distances over 78km, while the Law does not provide any distance for which women may travel unaccompanied in a vehicle.
• Women’s voices are considered private and should be concealed in public. The Law states that when a woman leaves her home for a “necessary purpose” she is required to conceal her voice, face and body. The Law also forbids men to look at the body and face of a woman who they do not know and vice versa.
• Inspectors of de facto Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice are responsible for ensuring publications and media content do not contradict Sharia, insult Muslims or contain images of living beings.
• The Law confers broad powers on inspectors, including the power to detain persons deemed to have violated the Law for up to three days and to implement other discretionary punishments, including referring violators to the courts.
After the publication of the Law, the de facto Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and other de facto Ministries held seminars to familiarize their personnel with its content. In addition, de facto Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice inspectors provided guidance and monitored the implementation of the Law to the wider population at checkpoints and during visits to places such as mosques, bazaars, barbershops, health facilities, educational institutions and NGO offices. On 2 October, the Taliban leader instructed all de facto Provincial Governors to establish committees which are to initially focus on implementing the Law among the de facto authorities themselves, followed by a broader enforcement across the country.
The Law further limits the already constrained rights of women and girls to freedom of movement, expression and participation in daily and public life. For example, in Kandahar province, a letter was issued on 1 September by the de facto Department of Public Health instructing female staff of public hospitals to be accompanied by a mahram when commuting to and from work at the hospital. In Helmand province, a similar letter was issued, also on 1 September, to an INGO-run hospital and included an additional provision that female patients must also be accompanied by a mahram in order to enter the hospital. Additionally, in some parts of the country, taxi drivers have refused to provide transport to women not accompanied by a mahram as a result of the more restrictive application of the mahram requirement under the Law.
On 9 July, UNAMA/OHCHR published a report entitled: “De facto Authorities’ Moral Oversight in Afghanistan: Impacts on Human Rights” which detailed the decrees and edicts issued by the de facto Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice and their implementation prior to the publication of the Law. The report found that the measures taken by the de facto Ministry negatively impact the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms of people living in Afghanistan, with a discriminatory and disproportionate impact on women.