ISLAMABAD – A group of Spanish women is gathering signatures to urge their government to bring the plight of the silenced Afghan women before the world so that they can justice.

Although civil society cannot directly initiate proceedings at the International Criminal Court, the signatories are calling for recognizing the Taliban regime’s actions as crimes against humanity.

According to Madrid-based leading Spanish newspaper EL-PAIS, Cristina Monge is leading this initiative, which began spreading on social media Sunday afternoon.

Monge is a political scientist and president of ‘Más Democracia’, an independent association focused on democratic quality.

She wrote on her X account to initiate proceedings before the International Criminal Court against the violations of Afghan women’s rights. In just a few hours, over 1,000 signatures were collected.

According to EL-PIAS, “The signatories include journalists, MPs, professors, lawyers, and women involved with international organizations”.

MORAL POLICING

The Afghan Taliban recently passed a legislation that empowers their morality police to meddle in the private lives of the people.

Under the new laws, the morality police are now authorized to intervene in the daily lives of Afghans, monitoring everything from how people dress and present themselves in public to what they eat and drink.

These laws have also publicly declared women’s voices as “improper”, imposing further restrictions on their public presence.

The new regulations stipulate that whenever an adult woman must leave her home out of necessity, she must cover her voice, face, and body.

Furthermore, whenever an adult woman must leave her home out of necessity, she must cover her voice, face, and body.

EVEN MEN AREN’T SPARED

Men are also subject to specific restrictions under the new moral code.

Now, they are required to cover their bodies from the navel to the knees when outside their homes, as these areas are considered ‘Awrah’ according to the Sharia [Islamic law], the Afghan Taliban claim.

For men, ‘Awrah’ typically includes the area from the navel to the knees. This means that, according to Sharia, a man must cover this part of his body in public.

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Men are further prohibited from styling their hair in ways that are deemed inconsistent with Sharia. The Taliban have already enforced a ban on barbers in several provinces from shaving or trimming beards, asserting that this rule aligns with Sharia law.

Under the new guidelines, men must keep their beards at least a fistful in length.

Additionally, the Code of Conduct prohibits men from wearing ties.

It is claimed by the Taliban that the newly-introduced laws are aimed at promoting virtue while eliminating vice.

The Taliban government enforces religious rule and remains committed to officially implementing the morality law. However, in certain areas, including the capital, Kabul, the law is not consistently enforced.

According to a source from the Ministry of Ethics, “they are developing a framework to ensure the new provisions are systematically applied. Once finalized, this framework is expected to bring greater clarity to the law’s implementation”.

Despite this, many of the law’s provisions are already being enforced in other parts of the country.

The Ministry of Proclamation of Virtue and Prevention of Evil is one of the most active governing bodies in Afghanistan, and reports indicate that the morality police in 2023 temporarily detained over 13,000 people for not adhering to Sharia law.

ERASING WOMEN FROM PUBLIC LIFE

The United Nations condemned these so-called “virtue sanctions,” expressing serious concerns about their implementation.

A senior UN official warned that these laws represent a ‘troubling vision for Afghanistan’s future’.

Rosa Otunbayeva, the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) expressed deep concern over Afghanistan’s bleak future.

She highlighted that ethics inspectors, who have been granted detention powers, often rely on threats and ambiguous lists of violations to exert control.

Otunbayeva emphasized that after “enduring centuries of war and now facing a severe humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve more than to be punished for trivial matters like being late for prayers, interacting with the opposite sex, or possessing a photograph of a loved one”.

Ravina Shamdasani, a Geneva-based Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, underlined the severity of Afghanistan’s newly-adopted “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” law, which she described as an egregious attempt to erase women from public life.

Shamdasani noted that “this is utterly intolerable” and called for the immediate repeal of the law.

She emphasized that “the extensive list of repressive provisions reinforces existing violations of women’s fundamental human rights, including their freedom of movement, expression, and their right to live free from discrimination”.

Shamdasani urged the “de facto authorities to immediately repeal this legislation, as it violates Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law”.

BASELESS JUSTIFICATIONS

On the other hand, Zabiullah Mujahid, the chief spokesperson of the Afghan Taliban, stated in a recent interview that the “restrictions on women are not new impositions but are part of implementing the Sharia system in the country”.

According to Mujahid, “The purpose of this system is to protect women and shield them from the gaze of other men, by the procedures prescribed by Sharia”.

Meanwhile, in his keynote address at the recent third Doha Summit, Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson and head of the Afghan delegation, did not directly address issues such as girls’ education, women’s employment, or travel bans. Instead, he framed these concerns as cultural, religious, and policy differences.

Mujahid presented the Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls as internal policies, emphasizing that powerful countries should not use these measures as leverage for security, political, or economic pressure.

He asserted that Afghans uphold certain religious and cultural values and public aspirations that “must be acknowledged” to foster progressive bilateral relations rather than leading to disputes and stagnation.

Mujahid emphasized that Afghanistan is a free and independent country and argued that international aid should not be conditioned on its internal affairs.

KABUL TAKEOVER OR WOMEN TAKEOVER?

Since the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, they have imposed strict restrictions on women, severely limiting their freedoms.

Women are barred from secondary and higher education, many are prohibited from working, and there are stringent rules governing their appearance and behavior in public.

The recent implementation of new laws, such as the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,” will further deteriorate the situation, intensifying the erasure of women from public life and worsening their already dire circumstances.

These measures, justified by the Taliban as aligning with Sharia law, have drawn widespread international condemnation.