UN ‘involved’ Taliban detaining Afghan ladies for gown code violations | Girls’s Rights Information

Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says the UN preoccupation with Afghan ladies is unwarranted.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan is “deeply involved” about Taliban authorities arbitrarily arresting and detaining ladies and women it accuses of violating gown codes relating to the Islamic headband, or hijab.

In an announcement on Thursday, the UN Help Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) stated it had “documented a sequence of hijab decree enforcement campaigns” going down since January 1 in Kabul and Daykundi provinces.

These have been below orders from the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Advantage and Prevention of Vice and the police, it stated, and girls had been “warned” and “detained”.

To safe a girl’s launch from detention, UNAMA stated her male guardian, additionally referred to as a mahram, was required to signal a letter guaranteeing her future compliance or else face punishment.

The mission stated it was trying into claims of ill-treatment of the ladies and extortion in change for his or her launch, and warned that bodily violence and detentions have been demeaning and harmful.

Since returning to energy in August 2021, Taliban authorities have imposed quite a few restrictions on ladies and women, with legal guidelines the UN has labelled “gender apartheid”.

“Enforcement measures involving bodily violence are particularly demeaning and harmful for Afghan ladies and women,” stated Roza Otunbayeva, UN particular envoy and head of the mission.

“Detentions carry an infinite stigma that places Afghan ladies at even higher threat,” she stated. “Additionally they destroy public belief.”

‘Pushing ladies into even higher isolation’

The Taliban stated final week that feminine cops have been taking ladies into custody for sporting “dangerous hijab.”

When the Taliban retook energy in 2021, they ordered ladies to cowl up when leaving residence, stopped women and girls from attending highschool or college, and banned them from parks, gyms and public baths.

Additionally they barred them from working for the UN or NGOs, and most feminine authorities staff have been dismissed from their jobs or paid to remain at residence.

The UN mission’s assertion stated it “fears the present crackdown is pushing ladies into even higher isolation as a consequence of concern of arbitrary arrest, and making a permissive atmosphere for males to implement repressive measures at residence”.

The Taliban chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, stated the UN preoccupation with Afghan ladies was unwarranted, and dismissed its issues.

“Afghan ladies put on hijab of their very own accord,” he stated on X. “They don’t must be compelled. The Vice and Advantage Ministry hasn’t compelled anybody [to wear hijab] both.”

In Could 2022, the Taliban issued a decree calling for ladies to solely present their eyes and recommending they put on the head-to-toe burqa, just like restrictions throughout their earlier rule of the nation between 1996 and 2001.

A spokesman for the Vice and Advantage Ministry, Abdul Ghafar Farooq, earlier on Thursday rejected studies that girls and women have been being arrested or crushed for sporting “dangerous hijab” and referred to as it propaganda from the overseas media.