Taliban rebukes UN concerns over laws banning women’s faces, voices in public

The Taliban on Monday rejected United Nations concerns and criticism over a new vice and virtue law that would ban Afghan women from revealing their faces or making any public appearances in public.

Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN mission in the country (UNAMA), said on Sunday that the law presented “dire prospects” for Afghanistan’s future. She said the law would expand “already intolerable restrictions” on the rights of women and girls and would clearly consider “even the sound of a woman’s voice outside the home” a moral violation.

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, in a statement, warned against the “arrogance” of those unfamiliar with Islamic law, particularly non-Muslims who may have reservations or objections.

Taliban regime bans women’s voices and faces from being seen in public

“We call for a full understanding of these laws and respectful recognition of Islamic values. Rejecting these laws without such understanding is, in our view, a sign of arrogance,” he said.

Afghanistan’s Taliban regime last Wednesday promulgated the country’s first set of laws to prevent vice and promote virtue.

These laws include requiring women to cover their faces, bodies and voices outside the home, and banning photographs and other images of living beings.

“In the midst of decades of war and a terrible humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve much better than to be threatened and imprisoned for being late to prayers, glancing at someone of the opposite sex who is not in their family, or holding a photo of a loved one,” Otunbayeva said.

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Responding to the UNAMA statement, Mujahid added: “It must be stressed that the concerns raised by various stakeholders will not cause the Islamic Emirate to waver in its commitment to upholding and implementing Islamic law.”