Kamran Mir Hazar
Letter to Editor
Afghanistan:
Vice and
Virtue Department Could Return
Women
and Girls Again at Risk
(New York, July 18, 2006) A proposal to reestablish the
Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in
Afghanistan raises serious concerns about potential abuse of the
rights of women and vulnerable groups, Human Rights Watch said
today.
President Hamid Karzai抯 cabinet has approved the proposal to
reestablish the department, and it will go to Afghanistan抯
parliament when it reconvenes later this summer. It is not clear
what the department抯 enforcement power would be. Nematullah
Shahrani, the minister of Haj and religious affairs, who would
oversee the department, has stated that it would focus on
alcohol, drugs, crime and corruption. Afghanistan抯 criminal
laws already address these issues.
揂fghan women and girls face increasing insecurity, and it抯
more important for the government to address how to improve
their access to public life rather than limit it further, said
Zama Coursen-Neff, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch.
揜einstatement of this controversial department risks moving the
discussion away from the vital security and human rights
problems now engulfing the country.
In a recently released report, 揕esson in Terror: Attacks on
Education in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch identified the
lack of access to education, especially for girls, as
jeopardizing the country抯 future development and security.
Human Rights Watch pointed out that the proposed vice and virtue
department does not address the real problems of increasing
insecurity in the south and southeast, particularly attacks on
schools, teachers and students that are preventing children from
attending school.
揟he proposed vice and virtue department抯 vague standards for
upholding morality could be used to silence critical voices, and
further limit women抯 and girls access to work, health care and
education, Coursen-Neff said.
A female member of parliament told Human Rights Watch that the
proposal was 揳 symbolic decision from the government but I抦
worried about it, maybe as always there will be some extremist
violence against freedom of speech on women抯 issues. The only
hope is the Parliament.
Under the Taliban, the vice and virtue department became a
notorious symbol of arbitrary abuses, particularly against
Afghan women and girls. The department ruthlessly enforced
restrictions on women and men through public beatings and
imprisonment. The department beat women publicly for, among
other things, wearing socks that were not sufficiently opaque;
showing their wrists, hands, or ankles; and not being
accompanied by a close male relative. They stopped women from
educating girls in home-based schools, working, and begging.
They also beat men for trimming their beards.
President Karzai came under pressure from conservative political
figures two months ago to reestablish the department in order to
counter anti-Western propaganda by opposition groups. The
president then appointed a panel with representatives from the
Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Haj and Religious Affairs, and
the Supreme Court, which drafted a proposal and presented it to
the cabinet. The cabinet approved the draft and plans to submit
it for parliamentary approval when the Afghan National Assembly
reconvenes later this summer.
Human Rights Watch called on the international community to make
clear a commitment to Afghanistan抯 long-term security and
reconstruction, and to avoid a return to repressive past
practices.
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