Twelve of the fifteen member states of the United Nations Security Council yesterday condemned the continued “oppression” of women in Afghanistan, expressing concern over the Taliban’s new “morals” law.

The Taliban government’s new “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Immorality” law – an 87-page, 35-article text – came into effect on July 31 and regulates with prohibitions and obligations many aspects of Afghan life according to Islamic law, Sharia.

The most hard-line provision concerns the voice of women (who were already excluded from the education system beyond Primary school), which should not be heard in public places, outside the home.

It also stipulates that women must cover their bodies from head to toe if they have to leave the house, which is only allowed in cases of “necessity”.

Algeria, China and Russia did not sign the text

By joint declaration, Britain, France, Guyana, Switzerland, USA, Japan, Ecuador, Malta, Mozambique, South Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia – Algeria did not sign the text, China and Russia – expressed their “deep concern over the so-called ‘morality law’ announced by the Taliban”.

The majority of the UN Security Council considers that the law undermines the prospect of Afghanistan’s “reintegration” into the international community.

“We would like to insist that actions of this nature on the part of the Taliban simply undermine the efforts of the international community to hold a dialogue with them (…) so that peace prevails within Afghanistan and with its neighbors” and the country “to rejoin the international community”, says the text read to the press by the Japanese ambassador to the United Nations, Yamazaki Kazuyuki.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the Taliban’s continued systematic gender discrimination and oppression of women and girls” in the country, the text added.

The twelve countries urged the Taliban’s de facto government to “repeal as soon as possible all policies and practices” that curtail women’s rights.