The UN mission in Afghanistan today expressed its “concern” about a bill recently passed by the Taliban that imposes, among other things, new restrictions on women.

The new law, published on Wednesday, controls every aspect of Afghans’ social and private lives, following a particularly strict version of sharia, Islamic law.

In its 35 articles, the bill provides, among other things, that the women they should have their face and body covered when outside the home and to ensure that their voice is not heard.

Also men are prohibited from shaving their beards, skipping prayers and fasting, as well as listening to music in the car.

Penalties for violating these rules range from “recommendations, warnings of sacred punishment, verbal threats” to “confiscation of property, detention from one hour to three days in prisons and any other punishment deemed appropriate,” the Afghan ministry said. Justice.

If these penalties fail to bring offenders into compliance, they will be referred to court, he added.

The UN reaction and the Taliban response

“After decades of war and in the midst of a horrific humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve more than being threatened or imprisoned if they are late for prayer, look at a person of the opposite sex who is not part of their family, or he has a photo in his possession,” Roza Otubayeva, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), complained today.

According to her, “the law increases the already intolerable restrictions on the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, with the mere sound of a woman’s voice outside the home being seen as an obvious violation of moral norms.”

The UN also expressed concern about the law’s restrictions on religious freedom and freedom of the press, as it stipulates that the media should not publish “content hostile to Sharia and religion” or “photos showing live beings”.

“Day by day they are trying to erase women from society,” complained a 37-year-old housewife from Kabul. “The silence of the international community in the face of the Taliban’s actions encourages them to create new laws and restrictions every day,” he added.

Officials from the Ministry of Virtue Promotion have been screening Afghans for any violations of sharia for three years. The ministry announced this week that it arrested and detained more than 13,000 people last year. However, he did not specify the crimes they had committed or their gender.

The Taliban scrapped Afghanistan’s previous constitution when they seized power in the country in August 2021 and said they would rule under Islamic law.

Western countries have stressed that in order to officially recognize the Taliban government, the Islamist movement must respect women’s rights.

The Taliban respond that they respect women according to their version of Islamic law and local customs, stressing that this is an internal matter.