The Taliban’s morality police have detained men and their barbers over hairstyles, and others for missing prayers at mosques during Ramadan, a UN report said Thursday, 6 months after laws regulating people’s conduct came into effect.
The Vice and Virtue Ministry published laws last August covering many aspects everyday life in Afghanistan, including public transport, music, shaving and celebrations. Most notably, the ministry issued a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public.
That same month, a top UN official warned the laws provided a “distressing vision” for the country’s future by adding to existing employment, education, and dress code restrictions on women and girls. Taliban officials have rejected UN concerns about the morality laws.
Thursday’s report, from the UN mission in Afghanistan, said in the first 6 months of the laws’ implementation, over half of detentions made under it concerned “either men not having the compliant beard length or hairstyle, or barbers providing non-compliant beard trimming or haircuts.”
The report said that the morality police regularly detained people arbitrarily “without due process and legal protections.”
During the holy fasting month of Ramadan, men’s attendance at mandated congregational prayers was closely monitored, leading at times to arbitrary detention of those who didn’t show up, the report added.
The UN mission said that both sexes were negatively affected, particularly people with small businesses such as private education centers, barbers and hairdressers, tailors, wedding caterers and restaurants, leading to a reduction or total loss of income and employment opportunities.
The direct and indirect socio-economic effects of the laws’ implementation were likely to compound Afghanistan’s dire economic situation, it said. A World Bank study has assessed that authorities’ ban on women from education and work could cost the country over $1.4 billion per year.
The Taliban leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has emphasized the primacy of Islamic law and the role of the Ministry of Vice and Virtue in reforming Afghan society and its people.
In a message issued ahead of the religious Eid Al-Fitr festival that marks the end of Ramadan, Akhundzada said it was necessary “to establish a society free from corruption and trials, and to prevent future generations from becoming victims of misguided beliefs, harmful practices and bad morals.”
More than 3,300 mostly male inspectors are tasked with informing people about the law and enforcing it, according to the report.
Nobody from the Vice and Virtue Ministry was immediately available for comment about the report.
Taliban morality enforcers arrest men for having the wrong hairstyle or skipping mosque, UN says
https://arab.news/j99ur
Taliban morality enforcers arrest men for having the wrong hairstyle or skipping mosque, UN says
- The Vice and Virtue Ministry published laws last August covering many aspects everyday life in Afghanistan
- The Taliban leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has emphasized the primacy of Islamic law
Julio Iglesias calls sexual abuse allegations against him ‘absolutely untrue’
- “I deny having abused, coerced or disrespected any woman. These accusations are absolutely false and cause me great sadness,” Iglesias said
- A Spanish high court received formal allegations against Iglesias on Jan. 5, officials said
MADRID: Grammy-winning singer Julio Iglesias on Friday denied allegations that he sexually assaulted two former employees, calling the accusations “absolutely untrue.”
Media reports from earlier this week alleged Iglesias had sexually and physically assaulted two women who worked at his residences in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas between January and October 2021. A day later, Spanish prosecutors said they were studying the allegations.
“With deep sorrow, I respond to the accusations made by two people who previously worked at my home. I deny having abused, coerced or disrespected any woman. These accusations are absolutely false and cause me great sadness,” Iglesias said on Instagram.
Spanish news outlet elDiario.es and US television network Univision Noticias published the joint, three-year investigation on Jan. 13 into Iglesias’ alleged misconduct.
A Spanish high court received formal allegations against Iglesias on Jan. 5, officials said. Iglesias could potentially be taken in front of the Madrid-based court, which can try alleged crimes by Spanish citizens while they are abroad, according to its press office.
A rights group representing the two women said they were accusing Iglesias of “crimes against sexual freedom and indemnity such as sexual harassment” and of “human trafficking for the purpose of forced labor and servitude.” Women’s Link Worldwide said the two women had presented the complaint to the Spanish court.
The 82-year-old is one of the world’s most successful musical artists, having sold more than 300 million records in more than a dozen languages. After making his start in Spain, Iglesias won immense popularity in the US and wider world in the 1970s and 1980s. He is the father of pop singer Enrique Iglesias.
In 1988, he won a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Performance for his album “Un Hombre Solo.” He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 2019.
“I had never experienced such malice, but I still have the strength for people to know the full truth and to defend my dignity against such a serious affront,” Iglesias wrote on social media.
He thanked those who had sent messages of support.
