The Taliban’s morality police are contributing to a climate of fear and intimidation among Afghans, according to a UN report published Tuesday. Edicts and some of the methods used to enforce them constituted a violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the report said.
The Taliban set up a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” after seizing power in 2021.
Since then, the ministry has enforced decrees issued by the Taliban leadership that have a disproportionate impact on women and girls, like dress codes, segregated education and employment, and having a male guardian when they travel.
“The punishments attached to non-compliance with instructions and decrees are often arbitrary, severe and disproportionate,” said the report from the UN Mission in Afghanistan. “Sweeping bans with a discriminatory effect on women have been introduced. Human rights violations, as well as the unpredictability of enforcement measures, contribute to a climate of fear and intimidation among segments of the population.”
The mission said it documented at least 1,033 instances between August 2021 and March 2024 where ministry employees applied force during the implementation of orders, resulting in the violation of a person’s liberty, and physical and mental integrity.
“This includes the use of threats, arbitrary arrests and detentions, excessive use of force by de facto law enforcement officials and ill-treatment.” These instances mostly affected men, who were punished for allegedly violating Taliban orders or because their female relatives had breached them, according to the report.
It said the ministry’s role was expanding into other areas of public life, including media monitoring and eradicating drug addiction.
“Given the multiple issues outlined in the report, the position expressed by the de facto authorities that this oversight will be increasing and expanding gives cause for significant concern for all Afghans, especially women and girls,” said Fiona Frazer, the head of UNAMA’s Human Rights Service.
The ministry rejected the UN report, calling its findings false and contradictory.
“Decrees and relevant legal documents are issued to reform society and should have their implementation ensured,” the ministry said.
The mission’s report comes a week after a Taliban delegation traveled to Qatar to attend a UN-sponsored meeting on increasing engagement with Afghanistan amid the country’s economic challenges and humanitarian crises.
That meeting sparked anger from rights groups and activists because it excluded Afghan women and civil society.
UN: Taliban’s morality police contributing to a climate of fear among Afghans
https://arab.news/4ejbv
UN: Taliban’s morality police contributing to a climate of fear among Afghans
- Taliban set up a ministry for the ‘propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice’ after seizing power in 2021
- Ministry’s role expanding into other areas of public life, including media monitoring and eradicating drug addiction
Ugandan opposition denounces ‘military state’ ahead of election
KAMPALA: As dark clouds gathered overhead, young and old members of Uganda’s long-embattled opposition gathered for prayers at the home of an imprisoned politician — the mood both defiant and bleak.
The mayor of Kampala, Erias Lukwago, told the gathering on Sunday that this week’s election was a “face off” between ordinary Ugandans and President Yoweri Museveni.
“All of you are in two categories: political prisoners and potential political prisoners,” he said.
Museveni is widely expected to extend his 40-year rule of the east African country in Thursday’s election, thanks to his near-total control of the state and security apparatus.
The 81-year-old came to power as a bush fighter in the 1980s and has maintained a militarised control over the country, brutally cracking down on challengers.
The latest campaign has seen hundreds of opposition supporters arrested and at least one killed, with the police claiming they are confronting “hooligans.”
The main opposition candidate Bobi Wine, real name Robert Kyagulanyi, is rarely seen in public without his flak jacket and has described the campaign as a “war.”
He has been arrested multiple times in the past and tortured in military custody.
The only other significant opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, was kidnapped in Kenya in 2024 and secretly smuggled to a Ugandan military prison to face treason charges in a case that has dragged on for months.
His wife, UNAIDS director Winnie Byanyima, hosted Sunday’s prayer meeting at their home. She said Uganda has only a “thin veneer” of democracy.
“We are really a military state,” she told AFP. “There’s total capture of state institutions by the individual who holds military power, President Museveni.”
Police ‘not neutral’
“The police officers I have met have never looked at themselves as neutral,” said Jude Kagoro, a researcher at the University of Bremen who has spent more than a decade studying African police.
Most officers view it as their duty to support the incumbent power, he said, and often require no explicit order to use brute force on opposition rallies.
Museveni’s regime has used many strategies to infiltrate and divide opposition groups, including through handouts to different ethnic groups.
Under a system informally known as “ghetto structures,” security officials recruit young people in opposition areas who “work for the police to disorganize opposition activities, and also to spy,” said Kagoro.
The government was taken by surprise when Wine burst on to the political scene ahead of the 2021 election, becoming the voice of the urban youth, and responded with extreme violence.
Similarly, Tanzania’s authoritarian government was caught unawares when protests broke out over rigging in last October’s election, and security forces responded by killing hundreds.
The Ugandan government is better prepared now.
“For the last four-plus years, they have been building an infrastructure that can withstand any sort of pressure from the opposition,” said Kagoro.
“We are used to the military and the police on the streets during elections.”
‘Too dangerous’
Still, the authorities are not taking any chances. Citizens are being told to vote and return home immediately.
“The regime wants to make people very scared so they don’t come out to vote,” said David Lewis Rubongoya, secretary-general of Wine’s National Unity Platform.
There has been a spate of arrests and abductions targeting the opposition — a tactic also increasingly used in neighboring Kenya and Tanzania — with rights groups accusing the east African governments of coordinating their repression.
The violence makes it hard for opposition groups to organize.
“The price people have to pay for engaging in political opposition has become very high,” said Kristof Titeca, a Uganda expert based at Antwerp University.
“What’s left is a group of core supporters. Is there a grassroots opposition? No, there isn’t. It’s way too dangerous.”
