Source: www.persecution.org
Date: August 27, 2024
Afghanistan (International Christian Concern) — Fresh on the heels of a decision last week to block the U.N. human rights rapporteur from entering Afghanistan, the Taliban regime ruling the country published a new set of morality laws that continues its long-running crackdown on human rights.
Women are no longer allowed to appear in public with uncovered faces, travel without a male escort, or look at men to whom they are not related. Further, women are not allowed to sing, recite, or read aloud in public.
According to a 2023 report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), more than half of the 80 religious edicts promulgated by the Taliban since coming to power in 2021 restrict the rights of women and girls. From education to employment to their ability to move about in public, the Taliban has worked to limit the rights of women in every area of life. Last week’s announcement furthers this trend.
An entire generation of women and girls was raised under the American-supported secular government of 2001-2021 with access to education, jobs, and even government positions. These rights have been systematically stripped from them under the new Taliban government, with no end to the discrimination in sight.
The recently announced law extends beyond women, regulating music played in cars, drawings and pictures of living beings, and daily prayers, among other regulations. The law was published as a 114-page, 35-article document, according to sources that reviewed the publication, and empowers the Ministry for Prevention of Vice and Propagation of Virtue in its relentless campaign of repression against the people of Afghanistan.
In a report published earlier this month, USCIRF called religious freedom conditions in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan dire, documenting how the regime has continually worked to “repress and significantly stifle any action or behavior that does not conform with their strict interpretation of Islam.”
USCIRF has recommended that the U.S. Department of State designate Afghanistan as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) every year since 2022, but this recommendation has yet to be followed. The Department of State has never recognized the religious freedom concerns in Afghanistan by designating it as a CPC or Special Watchlist country. However, it did designate the Taliban as an Entity of Particular Concern (EPC) three times from 1999-2001. The Taliban is not currently designated as an EPC.
Despite promises that it would rule with ideological moderation and restraint, the Taliban has implemented an extreme version of Sharia law in the country since seizing power in 2021. Enforcement of Sharia law includes, according to the recent USCIRF report, “public executions, lashings and floggings, stoning, beatings, and acts of public humiliation, such as forced head shaving.”
HOW TO PRAY: Pray that the underground church in Afghanistan would thrive and pray for protection over those doing dangerous evangelism work.