‘This law should be repealed’

It has been a week since the Taliban government passed the “Stop Good and Stop Evil Law”, but new reactions to the law are growing at home and abroad.

Nabila Masrali, spokeswoman for EU foreign and security policy chief Josep Borrell, said the Taliban’s laws denied Afghans many basic rights and denied women the right to freedom of expression.

Ms. Maslali told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday that European society was shocked by the Taliban’s law:

“This order creates another obstacle to normalizing relations with the Taliban and gaining international recognition, which the Taliban generally seeks.”

The Taliban government’s Ministry of Justice announced last Wednesday that the Good and Evil Order Law, consisting of four chapters and 35 articles, was published in the official gazette for the first time.

Many issues such as headscarf, forced dressing of women and women making noise in public are also called awrat in this law.

Nabila Masrali said the Taliban should immediately repeal the law:

“We call on the Taliban to end the systematic restrictions on Afghan women as they may be an example of sexual harassment, which is considered a crime against humanity under the statute of the International Criminal Court, to which Afghanistan is a party.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, the UNAMA political mission in Afghanistan, several diplomats and international humanitarian organizations have recently expressed their reactions to the Taliban’s new law to stop good and stop evil.

Political analysts also believe that such laws make it difficult for people to recognize the Taliban.

Political analyst Shah Mahmood Miakhel said the Taliban’s laws have no legal value to the world.

“The Taliban is basically a dictatorship. The decrees and laws they make have no legal meaning for Afghans and the world. Because it is a regime without popular legitimacy, without a constitution. Such decrees mean that they want Afghanistan and further isolate Afghans.”

But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said international concerns about a ban on the law of good and evil were unfounded and an insult.

Mujahid said in a newsletter on Monday that non-Muslims should first understand Islamic laws and respect them.

He added that such “groundless concerns” by the parties would not affect their stance.