Under the Taliban, women in Afghanistan face unprecedented threats. According to UN experts, women there face gender apartheid: “Taliban edicts policies and practices” constitute “an institutionalized system of discrimination, oppression and domination of women and girls.” Since their return to power in August 2021, the Taliban have imposed more than 70 edicts, orders, and decrees on women’s social, cultural, economic, political, and civil rights. These restrictions include education and workforce bans, along with invalidating women’s divorces, abolishing the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW Law), dissolving the court addressing the violence against women cases, and more.

In August 2024, the Taliban imposed even harsher restrictions.  The Taliban’s new law, “Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” (PVPV), marks a troubling escalation in their ongoing assault on human dignity and rights in Afghanistan, mainly for women and religious minorities.  The PVPV seeks to control all aspects of women’s lives and subject women to a surveillance system that extends into their communities and homes.

This new law includes a restrictive definition of “virtue” that accords with the Taliban’s specific interpretation of Islam, while “vice” refers to any actions that do not adhere to their rigid moral standards. The law, wrapped in the guise of religious morality, fundamentally violates freedom of religion and belief across the country and expands systemic gender-based oppression to enforce a rigid and extreme interpretation of Islam, leaving people with little to no autonomy over their religious practices, beliefs, or personal freedoms.

The PVPV law violates several international legal frameworks to which Afghanistan is a party, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion – which Afghanistan ratified in 1983, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which Afghanistan ratified in 2003. By discriminating against women based on their gender and restricting their freedom of religion and belief, the Taliban are in clear breach of their international obligations

The PVPV law directly attacks Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) by enforcing strict adherence to Hanafi jurisprudence and criminalizing any religious expression that deviates from Taliban norms. The law’s 35 articles, presented as promoting Islamic values, in reality, strip people of their fundamental rights and freedoms, denying them the ability to practice their faith as their ancestors have for generations. Afghanistan’s population, rich in ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity, has long embraced various interpretations of Islam. Other faiths that once thrived in the country have been driven out. The Taliban’s current restrictions on different religions and women bear a striking resemblance to the harsh rules they implemented when they were in power from 1996- 2001, including requiring non-Muslims, particularly Hindus, to wear distinct clothing to easily distinguish them from Muslims along with prohibiting women from working, getting an education, and moving about freely.

According to the provisions of the PVPV law, the Ministry of Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue (MPVPV)—which replaced the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in September 2021—now has the authority to enforce its restrictions more stringently, supported by the law’s provisions, including:

• Article 6 mandates adherence to Islamic Sharia and Hanafi jurisprudence, ignoring Afghanistan’s religious diversity.

• Article 7 authorizes any person in power, especially MPVPV’s morality police, to enforce these “virtues.”

• Article 13 mandates that women cover their entire bodies, including their faces, to prevent sedition, as well as restrict their voices in public. The law designates women’s voices as “awra,” parts of the body that should not be exposed to non-related persons. Women are prohibited from singing, reciting the Quran, or even chanting in public. It mandates that Muslim women conceal themselves from infidel and immoral women for fear of sedition.

• Article 20 bars taxi drivers from transporting women who do not follow the strict dress code, labeling them “bad hijab.”

• Article 24 outlines penalties, including verbal discipline, fines, and detention by the morality police, amplifying the risks of discrimination, intimidation, and harassment.

Under the PVPV law, women face heightened vulnerability due to their gender, economic status, and religious beliefs. The law restricts both public and private life, coercing families and communities to enforce Taliban practices. It restricts women’s mobility by fining those without a mahram – a male close familial member or relative – when traveling. It mandates rigid dress codes, such as compulsory face and voice covering, with harsh penalties enforced by the male morality police. These measures will worsen inequalities, especially for vulnerable women like household heads already suffering from food insecurity due to their exclusion from opportunities in education and employment.

The PVPV law’s implications extend far beyond the immediate violation of religious freedom. It is part of a broader campaign to systematically dismantle women’s rights in Afghanistan. Women’s FoRB rights are often overlooked in various societies, but under Taliban rule, these rights are directly targeted. The law creates an environment of fear that increases gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide, as it becomes easier to justify such acts under the pretext of enforcement.

The intersection between FoRB and women’s rights is undeniable. In societies where FoRB is upheld, women benefit from greater social and civil opportunities, respect, freedom of movement, and bodily autonomy. Conversely, FoRB violations lead to increased discrimination and subjugation of women. The Taliban’s PVPV law exacerbates these issues, reinforcing Afghanistan’s patriarchal system and deepening gender inequality and oppression.

The international community must act urgently on the Taliban’s new law, taking concrete steps to protect women’s rights as these violations threaten freedoms for women globally. FoRB and women’s rights advocates must unite to support Afghan activists in holding the Taliban accountable for their violation of international agreements and bring a CEDAW case before the International Court of Justice for their violations against the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

Fatema D. Ahmadi is an Afghan human rights advocate