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NEW YORK —A dozen U.N. Security Council ambassadors strongly condemned on Friday the Afghan Taliban's recent "morality law" which further erodes the rights of women and girls in that country and called for its reversal.
"On top of the existing edicts, this new directive confirms and extends wide-ranging and far-reaching restrictions on personal conduct and provides inspectors with broad powers of enforcement, thus deepening the already unacceptable restrictions on the enjoyment by all Afghans of human rights and fundamental freedoms," said Japan's U.N. ambassador, Yamazaki Kazuyuki.
"Day by day, Afghan women and girls lose their opportunities and hope for their future," he added. "This is unacceptable."
Envoys from Ecuador, France, Guyana, Malta, Mozambique, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States joined him as he read the statement before reporters.
The only Security Council members not to lend their support to the statement were Algeria, China and Russia.
On August 21, the Taliban announced the ratification of a detailed "Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice," which includes among its restrictions a prohibition on Afghan women using their voices in public and orders them to completely cover their bodies and faces outdoors. Women are also forbidden from interacting with non-Muslims, using public transport alone, and looking at men who are not their husband or blood relative.
The Taliban government, which is officially not recognized by any country, has dismissed U.N.-led foreign criticism of the law as offensive.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief Taliban spokesperson, asserted this week that "non-Muslims should first educate themselves about Islamic laws and respect Islamic values" before expressing concerns or rejecting the law. "We find it blasphemous to our Islamic Sharia when objections are raised without understanding it," he said.
The United States, European Union, United Nations and others have condemned the edict, the latest in a series that have eroded the rights of Afghan women and girls.
"Today, we once again urge the Taliban to swiftly reverse all the policies and practices that restrict the enjoyment by women and girls of their human rights and fundamental freedoms," Ambassador Kazuyuki said.
"The Taliban need to listen and respond to the voices of Afghan women and girls by respecting their rights to education and for women to work, as well as the freedoms of expression and movement. It is a prerequisite for a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan."
The Japanese envoy noted that the 15-nation Security Council has repeatedly discussed the worsening human rights situation in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over in August 2021 and have "raised a united voice on multiple occasions."
Last year, the council unanimously adopted Resolution 2681 which calls for the full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women and girls in Afghanistan.
The 12 Security Council members also called on those countries with influence over the Taliban to promote the "urgent reversal" of the policy, which violates Afghanistan's obligations under international human rights treaties to which it is a signatory.
They also urged the Taliban to allow the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan to visit the country. The Taliban have publicly said they will not allow Richard Bennett entry.
The U.N.'s agency for gender equality and women's empowerment, U.N. Women, warned in a statement on August 28 that the new law is "effectively erasing women from public life and granting broad enforcement powers to the morality police."
U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo warned last month that the law would only impede Afghanistan's return to the international fold.
The Security Council plans to next discuss Afghanistan in a meeting on September 18.
Ayaz Gul in Islamabad contributed to this report.