The frightening Vice and Virtue laws

Alexa Diaz

Design by Alexa Diaz

On August 21, 2024, the Taliban ratified the “Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice,” subjugating millions of Afghan women to severe restrictions on their rights. 

According to UN Women, since early 2021, when the Taliban gained power over Afghanistan, over 70 edicts, directives, and decrees have been passed, “stripping [women] of fundamental rights.” Education is among the many sectors, including medicine, tourism, and leisure activities, that have been mostly removed from women’s lives. Several policies have banned schools from issuing transcripts and certificates for female students and instructed higher education institutes to only accept male applicants starting March 2023. 

Education is not the only area that has been affected by these new policies. The newly ratified “Vice and Virtue” laws state that “whenever an adult woman leaves her home out of necessity, she is obliged to conceal her voice, face, and body.” Additionally, women may also be punished if, while speaking or reading aloud inside their homes, their voices are heard from outside. If found guilty, they can be detained and punished in a “manner deemed appropriate by Taliban officials.” This vague punishment policy has led to concern and confusion over the condition of Afghan women. 

Ravina Shamdasani, Chief Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) claims that the new laws “effectively [attempt] to render [women] into faceless, voiceless shadows.” By requiring women to be completely covered, silent, and removed from most human interactions in public, forcing women into a perceived state of isolation, new legislation threatens women with the complete eradication of their rights, identities, and overall participation in society. 

While the new legislation mostly affects women, it has been restrictive even to men, who are required to grow beards and “cover their bodies from their navels to their knees when they are outside their homes.” Additionally, they can be punished for extending public assistance or attention to a woman who is not accompanied by an appropriate male escort. These aspects of the new laws have only heightened the global controversy and turmoil the Taliban has created thus far. 

The new “Vice and Virtue” laws have, unsurprisingly, already been condemned by many human rights organizations and agencies around the world, including the UN’s Human Rights Office, who has called for their immediate revocation. Most of the world stands in unrelenting solidarity for the 14 million Afghan women and girls whose “fundamental rights” have been “stripped” away, leading one to wonder how world leaders will address this issue.