Taliban leaders in Afghanistan have ordered fresh limitations on women, forbidding them from singing, reciting poetry or speaking aloud in public and mandating them to keep their faces and bodies covered at all times.
The restrictions are part of a new so-called Vice and Virtue decree published by the Taliban's Justice Ministry on Wednesday after approval from their reclusive supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, said a ministry spokesman in a video message.
The 35-article document is the first formal declaration of the vice and virtue laws under the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law since they regained power in Afghanistan three years ago.
The decree greatly restricts personal freedoms and religious practices, covering aspects of everyday life such as transportation, music, shaving, celebrations, and women's behavior and appearance in public.
The rules targeting female members of the Afghan society explained that a woman's voice is deemed intimate and should not be heard singing, reciting poetry or reading aloud in public. Women also are not allowed to look at men they are not related to by blood or marriage and vice versa.
Under the new law, females must cover their bodies and faces at all times in public to avoid temptation and to avoid tempting others. Their clothing should not be thin, short or tight, it emphasized.
The legal document empowers the Taliban's Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice to enforce these rules across the impoverished, war-torn South Asian country. It can give warnings before imprisoning offenders for durations from one hour to three days, and it also may seize properties as a penalty if considered appropriate.
The actions of the Vice and Virtue Ministry are already under international scrutiny.
The United Nations reported last month that the ministry's ever-expanding policing of public morality was contributing to a climate of fear and intimidation among Afghans through edicts and the methods used to enforce them.
One of the articles in the legal document released Wednesday bans the publication of images of living beings, which critics fear could further shrink media in Afghanistan, forcing the closure of television channels, digital media and print newspapers. Media outlets are already suffering from Taliban-ordered censorship.
Another article prohibits playing music in public transport, the travel of female passengers unless accompanied by a male guardian, and the mingling of unrelated men and women. Additionally, passengers and drivers are required by law to observe designated prayer times. Men cannot shave beards or trim them to less than a fistful, although the law does not define what qualifies as an "Islamic" hairstyle.
Human rights activists feared the latest restrictions underscore a significant increase in the Taliban's attempts to enforce their version of Islamic law, especially in suppressing and removing women from public life.
The fundamentalist Taliban have already barred Afghan girls ages 12 and older from attending school and many women from public and private sector jobs, including United Nations agencies. No country has officially recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, mainly over their harsh treatment of women.
On Wednesday, Richard Bennett, the U.N.-appointed special rapporteur on Afghan human rights, confirmed that the Taliban had barred him from visiting the country, calling it a "step backward" and urging the de facto Afghan government to lift the travel ban.
Bennett has taken several trips to Kabul and highlighted in his subsequent reports the Taliban's sweeping curbs on Afghan women's access to education, employment and public life at large. He alleged that women and girls under Taliban rule "are being persecuted" based on gender, which he called a crime against humanity.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has defended their travel ban on the U.N. envoy, alleging that Bennett was "spreading propaganda" by providing "misleading" information to the international community.
