Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says the UN preoccupation with Afghan girls is unwarranted.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan is “deeply involved” about Taliban authorities arbitrarily arresting and detaining girls and ladies it accuses of violating costume codes relating to the Islamic headband, or hijab.
In a press release on Thursday, the UN Help Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) stated it had “documented a collection of hijab decree enforcement campaigns” happening since January 1 in Kabul and Daykundi provinces.
These have been beneath orders from the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Advantage and Prevention of Vice and the police, it stated, and ladies had been “warned” and “detained”.
To safe a girl’s launch from detention, UNAMA stated her male guardian, additionally known as a mahram, was required to signal a letter guaranteeing her future compliance or else face punishment.
The mission stated it was wanting into claims of ill-treatment of the ladies and extortion in alternate 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 girls and ladies, with legal guidelines the UN has labelled “gender apartheid”.
“Enforcement measures involving bodily violence are particularly demeaning and harmful for Afghan girls and ladies,” stated Roza Otunbayeva, UN particular envoy and head of the mission.
“Detentions carry an unlimited stigma that places Afghan girls at even better danger,” she stated. “Additionally they destroy public belief.”
‘Pushing girls into even better isolation’
The Taliban stated final week that feminine cops have been taking girls into custody for carrying “dangerous hijab.”
When the Taliban retook energy in 2021, they ordered girls to cowl up when leaving dwelling, 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 workers have been dismissed from their jobs or paid to remain at dwelling.
The UN mission’s assertion stated it “fears the present crackdown is pushing girls into even better isolation as a consequence of concern of arbitrary arrest, and making a permissive surroundings for males to implement repressive measures at dwelling”.
The Taliban chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, stated the UN preoccupation with Afghan girls was unwarranted, and dismissed its considerations.
“Afghan girls put on hijab of their very own accord,” he stated on X. “They don’t have to be compelled. The Vice and Advantage Ministry hasn’t compelled anybody [to wear hijab] both.”
In Might 2022, the Taliban issued a decree calling for ladies to solely present their eyes and recommending they put on the head-to-toe burqa, much 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 experiences that ladies and ladies have been being arrested or overwhelmed for carrying “dangerous hijab” and known as it propaganda from the international media.
