In a recent report, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has detailed the Taliban's severe restrictions on women's rights, including their right to work, education, and freedom of movement in Afghanistan.
The report, which covers the period from October to December 2023, reveals the Taliban's Department for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice's strict enforcement of the hijab and other dress requirements.
The department's officials reportedly visit public places, offices, and educational institutions, and establish checkpoints to monitor the population, creating an atmosphere of intense fear. Roza Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary General and head of UNAMA, stated in a U.N. press release, "Enforcement measures involving physical violence are especially demeaning and dangerous for Afghan women and girls... Detentions carry an enormous stigma that put Afghan women at even greater risk. They also destroy public trust."
The escalating oppression of women by the Taliban has sparked alarm within the human rights community. However, the international community's lack of response has left many in Afghanistan feeling ignored. Heather Barr, Womens Rights Associate Director for Human Rights Watch, told Fox News Digital, "I think the international community is increasingly looking away and refusing to be aware of Taliban abuses."
The report is filled with disturbing examples of the morality police's widespread enforcement of a strict dress code and other morality laws imposed after the Talibans takeover in August 2021. The Taliban prohibits unmarried women or those without a male guardian, known as a mahram, from working or accessing public services. The report cites the detention of three female healthcare workers for going to work without a male guardian. Women without a male guardian are also barred from seeking treatment at healthcare facilities.
In early December, a woman working at a healthcare facility was warned by Vice and Virtue ministry officials that she needed to be married or risk losing her job. The Taliban's April 2022 hijab decree is also being enforced, with women in Kabul and other cities being arrested and detained for violating the public dress mandate. Women are typically released after several hours once a male relative signs a decree promising that their female relative will obey the decree.
Barr expressed alarm at the recent wave of arrests of women and girls accused by the Taliban of bad hijab. She believes that the Talibans crackdown continues to intensify, with Afghan women and girls' lives becoming increasingly difficult.
Calls for greater U.S. and international assistance for the primary opposition against the Taliban, the National Resistance Front (NRF), have so far been ignored. Jazz Cannon, an Afghan American women's rights activist and advocate for Vets4NRF, told Fox News Digital, "The lack of international support for Afghan women in the National Resistance Front is bewildering... I know that the Taliban will not grant Afghan women our rights, and neither will President Biden. But I know who will, and thats Ahmad Massoud and the NRF. They are fighting for our rights at this very moment."
The NRF, led by Ahmad Massoud, remains the most formidable Afghan resistance unit fighting the Taliban and has pledged to continue the fight despite the odds. Ali Maisam Nazary,
Head of Foreign Relations for the NRF, told Fox News Digital, "It's imperative for the international community and the people of Afghanistan to unite and support the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan in our crucial struggle to liberate our country from the Taliban's terrorism and oppression, to prevent Afghanistan from descending into a path of destruction."
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