Amnesty International says that the Taliban’s moral policing has significantly deteriorated the human rights situation in Afghanistan, emphasizing the urgent need for the regime to roll back these measures.
In a statement on Wednesday, July 10, the rights group referenced the UN report on the Taliban morality police, saying that their activities have negatively impacted human rights in the country.
In a report titled “De Facto Authorities’ Moral Oversight in Afghanistan: Impacts on Human Rights,” released earlier this week, the UN underscored that the Taliban morality police are contributing to a “climate of fear and intimidation” among Afghans.
The report prepared by the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reveals that the Taliban morality police’s main role is to enforce the decrees, edicts, and instructions of the Taliban leadership, often using tactics such as verbal intimidation, arrests, ill-treatment, and public lashing.
UNAMA says that from the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021 until March 2024, it documented 1,033 instances (205 on females, 828 on males) where the Taliban morality police used force while enforcing their instructions.
Meanwhile, Zaman Sultani, Amnesty International’s regional researcher for South Asia, says, “The arbitrary, inconsistent, and ambiguous record of morally policing the people of Afghanistan, with an institutionalized system of discrimination that disproportionately impacts women and girls, has had a decaying effect on human rights in the country.”
Amnesty International urged the UN to create an independent international accountability mechanism to investigate crimes under international law and other serious violations in Afghanistan.
The rights group also requested the UN to prioritize gender justice and ensure the participation of women’s rights defenders and civil society in all engagements with the Taliban regarding the future of Afghanistan.
“To fail to do so would be to turn our backs on the victims and their rights to truth, justice, and reparation,” it emphasized.
The Taliban, however, dismissed the UN report as “incorrect” and “unfounded,” arguing that the authors evaluated Afghanistan from a Western perspective.
In a statement following the report’s release, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, emphasized that “Afghanistan should be assessed as a Muslim society, where the vast majority of the population are Muslims who have made significant sacrifices for the establishment of a Sharia system.”
