Promotion of Vice and Prevention of Virtue, Afghan women becoming faceless and voiceless shadows

In the lead-up to the US withdrawal and Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021, the Taliban tried hard to project a softer image. Some officials presented “Taliban 2.0” as more moderate, promising to respect women’s rights within Islamic values, ensure an inclusive government and prevent Afghan soil from being used for terrorism. They spoke the language of diplomacy to gain international legitimacy.

Today, that mask has completely fallen. The formation of the interim cabinet itself revealed the old guard’s firm grip on power. Hardliners like Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob were given top positions. Instead of moderation, the Taliban replaced the Ministry of Women’s Affairs with the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice turning it into feared morality police.

The Taliban’s so-called “Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” perfectly exposes their hypocrisy. A morality police force tasked with erasing women from public life. This 114-page, 35-article document grants sweeping powers to religious enforcers, while imposing severe limitations on personal freedoms.

Article 13 declares a woman’s voice as “awrah” that must not be heard in public. Women are mandated to cover their entire bodies and faces at all times, wear only loose and thick clothing and cannot leave home without a male mahram. They are forbidden from singing, reciting poetry or speaking loudly. The law also bans mixing with non-mahram men, restricts public transport for women without guardians and empowers enforcers to arrest, punish and detain violators.

This systematic oppression goes far beyond cultural norms. Girls have been banned from secondary education since 2022, affecting over 1.2 million. Women are largely barred from most jobs, including work with NGOs, leaving countless families without breadwinners. Widows and single mothers have been pushed into extreme poverty. The transformation of a women’s ministry into a vice-and-virtue enforcement body has not only destroyed women’s rights but also devastated families economically and socially.

The Taliban’s while claiming to bring stability, they have institutionalized gender apartheid. Their policies have turned Afghanistan into a prison for half its population. By silencing and isolating women, the Taliban are not promoting virtue they are institutionalizing cruelty, ignorance and regression.

True virtue would empower women as mothers, educators and contributors to society. What the Taliban practice is the promotion of vice the vice of fear, control and misogyny. The international community must not normalize this regime until it reverses its brutal policies against Afghan women and girls. Afghanistan’s future cannot be built by burying half its population alive.