The Taliban in Afghanistan have detained men and their barbers over hairstyles as well as others for missing prayers at mosques during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a report published by the United Nations said on April 10th, six months after a law regulating people’s conduct came into effect.
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Vice and Virtue passed a new law in August last year covering several aspects of everyday life in the country, including public transport, celebrations, shaving, and music. Most notably, the ministry also banned women’s voices and bare faces in public.
In that same month, a top UN official warned that the law provided a “distressing vision“ for Afghanistan’s future by adding existing restrictions on women and girls to employment, education, and even dress code. Taliban officials, however, have rejected UN concerns about their strict morality laws.
The report from the UN mission in Afghanistan said that in the first six months of the law’s implementation, over half of the detentions made under it were “either men not having the compliant beard length or hairstyle, or barbers providing non-compliant beard trimming or haircuts.“
It also said the Taliban’s morality police regularly detained people arbitrarily “without due process and legal protections.“
During the holy month of Ramadan, the Taliban closely monitored men’s attendance at mandated congregational prayers, leading at times to arbitrary detention of those who did not show up.
The UN mission said both sexes were negatively affected, especially people running small businesses such as private education centers, barbers and hairdressers, tailors, wedding caterers, and restaurants. This led to a huge reduction or total loss of income and employment opportunities for Afghans.
The direct and indirect socioeconomic effects of the Taliban’s new draconian laws were also likely to compound Afghanistan’s already dire economic situation. A study from the World Bank assessed that their ban on women’s education and employment could cost the country $1.4 billion every year.
But the Taliban’s elusive Supreme Leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, emphasized the primacy of Islamic law in Afghanistan and the Ministry of Vice and Virtue’s role in reforming Afghan society.
In a message issued ahead of the Eid Al-Fitr festival, which marks the end of Ramadan, Akhundzada said it was necessary “to establish a society free from corruption and trials and to prevent future generations from becoming victims of misguided beliefs, harmful practices, and bad morals.“
More than 3,300 inspectors, mostly male, are tasked with informing the people about the new laws and enforcing them. The ministry’s spokesman, Saif ur Rahman Khyber, claimed that it resolved thousands of complaints and defended the rights of Afghan women.
This was in addition to what they described as “implementing divine decrees in the fields of promoting virtue, preventing vice, establishing affirmations, preventing bad deeds, and eliminating bad customs.“
Saif ur Rahman Khyber said the ministry is committed to all Islamic and human rights and has proven this in practice, rejecting attempts to “sabotage or spread rumors“ about its activities.
