• Afghanistan

Kabul, Aug 23 (EFE).-

Afghanistan’s Taliban government ratified a law that requires women to cover their face with a veil and bans their voices in public, implementing the most rigorous interpretation of Islamic law.

The vice and virtue law was ratified on Thursday night by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan – the Taliban government’s formal name for the country -, official sources of the Taliban confirmed to EFE on Friday.

The 35-article law, to which EFE had access, contains four chapters that address issues such as the full veil or hijab for women, men’s clothing, and regulations of the media.

“According to this law, the aforementioned ministry is obliged to command the good and forbid the evil in accordance with Islamic Sharia and Hanafi jurisprudence,” Barkatullah Rasooli, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice, said in a statement, Afghan network Tolo News reported.

The ministry “is also responsible for ensuring peace and brotherhood among the people while preventing them from engaging in ethnic, linguistic, and regional prejudices,” he added.

In the article that refers to the hijab, the norm establishes that it is necessary for women to cover their face and body to avoid causing “temptation,” and refrain from singing, reading or reciting aloud in public.

It also prohibits drivers from transporting adult women without a legal male guardian.

“The implementation of Sharia and Hijab is our red line. We cannot negotiate with anyone on these matters,” the acting Minister of Vice and Virtue, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, said in a meeting with officials, according to Tolo.

Meanwhile, Article 22 prohibits men from wearing a tie, shaving or trimming the beard below the length of a fist, or grooming one’s hair, as violations of Islamic law or Sharia.

The law also has general provisions on the media and its obligation to conform to Sharia, and a ban on humiliating or insulting Muslims as well as including images of living beings.

According to the Taliban, the law is made in accordance with Sharia and Hanafi, one of the four main schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence. EFE

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