The Taliban has rejected the UN’s recent report, which highlighted that the regime’s morality police are contributing to a “climate of fear and intimidation” among segments of Afghans, particularly women.
The Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, issued a statement dismissing the report as “incorrect” and arguing that the authors of the report evaluated Afghanistan from a Western perspective.
“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,” the Taliban statement reads.
In its report published on July 9th, the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) highlighted that the Taliban’s morality police, overseen by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, is responsible for curtailing human rights and freedoms, particularly targeting women.
The report says that the ministry “had negative impacts on the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, with a discriminatory and disproportionate impact on women”.
According to the report, the primary role of the Taliban morality police is to enforce the decrees, edicts, and instructions of the Taliban leadership, often resorting to verbal intimidation, arrests, ill-treatment, and public lashing.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021 until March 2024, the UN documented 1,033 instances (205 on female, 828 on male) where the Taliban morality police used force while implementing their instructions.
The Taliban morality police also enforce measures aimed at reducing interaction between men and women in daily life, and they instruct barbers to refuse “Western-style” haircuts for men while arresting people who play music.
The Taliban spokesman, however, has said that the UN is “trying to judge Afghanistan from a Western perspective” when it is an Islamic country.
“Under the rule of the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan [the Taliban], all Sharia rights of citizens are guaranteed, whether they are women or men. They are treated according to Sharia, and the provisions of Islamic Sharia are enforceable as laws. There is no oppression,” he claimed.
