The Taliban's new laws on vice and virtue, which include a ban on women's voices and naked faces in public, provide a "shaking vision" of Afghanistan's future, the head of the United Nations (UN) mission in the country, Roza Otunbayeva, has warned.
Otunbayeva said the laws tighten already intolerable restrictions on the rights of women and girls, with even the sound of a woman's voice outside the home apparently considered a violation of public morality.
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers last Wednesday issued the first set of laws "to prevent vice and promote virtue," which include requiring women to hide their face, body and voice when outside the home.
The laws allow the Ministry of Vice and Virtue to regulate behavior and impose penalties such as warnings or arrests if its employees determine that someone has broken the laws.
The UN mission said it is studying the newly ratified law and its implications for Afghans, as well as its potential impact on the UN and humanitarian aid.
On September 18, Otunbayeva should submit a report to the UN Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan, exactly three years after the Taliban banned girls' education after the sixth grade.
Taliban officials could not be reached for comment, but in a statement broadcast on August 25 by state broadcaster RTA, Deputy Minister Mohammad Khaled Hanafi said that no one has the right to violate women's rights based on inappropriate customs.
"We are committed to ensure all women's rights based on Islamic law and anyone who has a complaint in this regard will be heard and redressed," he added.
Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada said last year that women in Afghanistan were allowed a "comfortable and prosperous" life, despite decrees barring them from many public spaces, education and most jobs.
The UN has previously said that official recognition of the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan is almost impossible as long as restrictions on women and girls remain in place.
Although no country recognizes the Taliban government, many in the region have ties to them.
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