Domestic and international reactions to the Taliban’s Law of Enjoining Good and Prohibiting Evil

26 Aug 2024
6 Minutes
Domestic and international reactions to the Taliban’s Law of Enjoining Good and Prohibiting Evil

In continuation of the reactions to the approval of the new law of commanding the good and prohibiting the evil of the Taliban group by the leader of this group, this time the delegation of the United Nations deputy in Afghanistan has said that this law is an arbitrary executive structure by the Taliban.

The law of promoting the good and forbidding the evil of the Taliban group, which was recently approved by the leader of this group, has caused widespread domestic and international reactions.

Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the United Nations Deputy Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), has said that this law is an arbitrary executive structure by the Taliban, in response to the approval of the new law on commanding good and forbidding evil by the Taliban group.

Mrs. Roza Otunbayeva said in the newsletter that the new restrictions in the law approved by the Taliban are intolerable and violate the rights of Afghan women and girls; According to this law, a woman should not talk outside the house.

He has stated: “This text of the law approved by the Taliban ignores the complete diversity of Afghanistan’s religious communities, has disturbing effects on religious freedoms and creates more restrictions on the work of journalists and media.”

The head of UNAMA has emphasized that further restricting the rights of the Afghan people and keeping them in constant fear will make it more difficult to achieve the goal of securing human rights in this country.

The United Nations delegation says that the Taliban group should adhere to the commitments of Afghanistan as an independent country to 7 key international human rights documents and change their policy.

This United Nations official has said that the organization is now studying the new law approved by the Taliban, and the organization has also asked the Taliban to explain in this regard.

In this regard, Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan, supported UNAMA’s position against the new law of the Taliban group and said that he will evaluate the effects of this law and its consequences.

Mr. Bennett has emphasized that the new Taliban law has created widespread concerns about the potential impact on the Afghan people.

He added: “I share UNAMA’s concern about the severe consequences of the new Taliban law with other special experts, and I also continue to assess the effects of this law and its consequences on the human rights of all Afghans.”

On the other hand, the Canadian government has condemned the new law of the Taliban group and has asked this group to end human rights violations in Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada has written on the X channel that the Taliban group is trying to silence the voice of the Afghan people, especially women and girls, with the new law.

The ministry has said: “We ask the Taliban to cancel all restrictions imposed on women and girls and end human rights violations in Afghanistan.”

The Embassy of Japan in Afghanistan has said in connection with the ratification of the new Taliban law that they are worried about the continued restrictions on Afghan women.

The embassy in Ax wrote: “We once again express our deep concern about the continued restrictions on Afghan women and girls.”

The embassy also said that in coordination with the international community, it encourages the Taliban to listen to the voices of Afghan women and girls for education, work and freedom of movement.

German Foreign Minister Analena Berbuk also described the Taliban’s new law as “anti-feminist” and said that the Taliban are trying to silence half of the country’s population (women) with this law.

He added in an article in Ax: “The Taliban are making laws that deprive Afghan women of their dignity, rights and voice.”

The German Foreign Minister emphasized that these laws once again show that establishing relations with extremist Islamists is not possible.

Meanwhile, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson of the United Nations Secretary General, condemned the new law of the Taliban and said that such decisions will make the process of progress and improvement difficult.

The spokesperson of the Secretary General of the United Nations has said: “Other than condemning such decisions, it is hard to imagine any country that will progress, develop and improve its situation with such orders.”

Rina Amiri, the US special representative for Afghanistan’s women’s and human rights affairs, said that the publication of the Law on Prohibiting the Good and Prohibiting the Evil of the Taliban shows that the group has doubled down on its extremist policies of the 1990s.

Ms. Amiri wrote on her X page that maintaining the current position of the international community against the Taliban is “a normative, economic and security necessity.” According to him, the international community should not normalize its relations with the Taliban until there is a deep improvement in the human rights situation in Afghanistan.

Haja Lahabib, the foreign minister of Belgium, in response to the law of commanding the good and prohibiting the evil of the Taliban, said that this law seeks to eliminate half of the population of Afghanistan.

Lahabib wrote in his X sheet that the purpose of this Taliban law is to exclude women from public places.

He has emphasized that the voice and status of Afghan women should be strengthened.

In this regard, a number of political, cultural figures and human rights activists condemned this Taliban law and said that it is an insult to the human dignity of the country’s citizens.

Shahrazad Akbar, the former head of Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission, said in response to the implementation of the Taliban’s Law of Prohibition and Prohibition of Evil, that this law “holds up a mirror to their sick, polluted and prejudiced view.”

Mrs. Akbar wrote on the X social network: “Objectification of women and deprivation of their human dignity, imposing restrictions on citizens’ clothing, entertainment, and worship methods, etc. People are dying of hunger, lack of electricity, and lack of medicine, and these are following the measurement of hijab and beards.”

Ali Ahmad Jalali, the former Minister of Interior of Afghanistan, called the new law of the so-called Taliban “shameful” and said that the Taliban practically imprisons women in the country.

He emphasized, this law showed that there is no difference between ISIS and Taliban from the intellectual point of view.

Tarrnum Saidi, a women’s rights activist and a member of the Afghan Women’s Political Network, in response to the Taliban’s new restrictions on women, compared Afghanistan under the rule of this group to a hell for girls and women and says that every moment of their life in the country is torment and suffering. It is torture.

He wants the international community to stop supporting and interacting with this group and by applying political pressure to force this group to remove restrictions on women.

In a protest rally in the city of Islamabad, Pakistan, members of the Panjere Omid movement say with concern that this law will return the status of women to the first round of the Taliban.

In a resolution, this movement calls the Ministry of Prosperity and Prohibition of the Taliban an anti-women and human rights agency and asks the international community to use the policy of sanction and punishment against this group instead of interaction.

In a protest rally in Islamabad, Pakistan, the members of the Afghan women’s freedom movement have reacted to the Taliban’s new law of commanding good and forbidding evil and saying that the Taliban do not have the authority to impose the law on the people due to lack of internal and external legitimacy.

According to this movement, if the world ignores and ignores the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan, the future of women will be plunged into complete darkness.

In a statement, this movement asked the international community to prevent the “extermination of women” under the rule of the Taliban.

On the other hand, some women say that the Taliban make life “darker” for people every day and increase the restrictions on them.

They emphasized that imposing new restrictions on women will make life in Afghanistan impossible

This is despite the fact that the law of enjoining the good and prohibiting the evil of the Taliban has been approved by Hebatullah Akhundzadeh in 1 introduction, 4 chapters and 35 articles. This law calls women’s body, face and voice “women” and emphasizes that even reading naats and recitations by women is not allowed and their voices should not be heard anywhere. According to this law, it is forbidden to see live photos and movies on phones, computers and any other device. According to this law of the Taliban, men are obliged to grow a beard and avoid tying the knot and cutting their hair in the western style.

It has been said in the law of the Taliban that it is forbidden to transport women without Muharram by drivers. In this law, all games and entertainments, including gambling and four-brained gambling, are prohibited and forbidden. According to this law, all merchants, businessmen and farmers have to pay zakat and tithe to this group in addition to paying taxes. The use of statues of living objects in advertisements is prohibited and the officials of this group are authorized to imprison people from 1 hour to 3 days.