As AFP from Kabul has reported the Afghan Parliament (Shuray-e Melli) is to proceed a new legislation that will ban women from wearing make-up in public and forbidding young boys from wearing female fashions, men and women talking to each other in public, men wearing indecent T-shirts and sporting long hair, use of loud speakers, pigeon flying, animal fights. Men and young boys must avoid wearing bracelets, necklaces, "feminist dresses," and hair-bands, the draft reads. It demands separate halls for men and women during wedding parties, while loud music is banned at such gatherings. Afghans hold big and costly get-togethers for weddings, usually in a public hall with music. Reportedly this draft has been prepared by Mulla Taadj Mohammad Mojahed, who is the chair of Parliament's Commission of Combating Drug and Moral Decay. Within Afghan political observers it is said that this draft has been brought in order to encourage Taliban to come to power and to officially engage them with the current political system.
Obviously this draft needs approval by both chambers of the Islamist-dominated parliament and President Karzai signature to become a law. This news however strongly reminds us of the first years after the Revolution of 1979 in Iran when Ayatollah Khomeini took power and after a violent repression of all secular dissents has forcefully started to enforce Islamic laws (indeed as understood by a power based reading of Islamic Texts called Islam-e Fighahati in the official discourse) in Iran. While the story of Islamization of morals in Iran still continues by using force, it reminds the people in Afghanistan the six years reign of Taliban (1996 to 2001) when such strict moral codes in the name of protection of Islamic values were enforced and those not following were sentenced publicly. (Download some Taliban laws here)
According to the AFP’s reporter, who has received a copy of Draft, one article of the draft has provided so: "Women and girls are obliged to not wear make-up, wear suitable dresses and observe Hijab (veil) while at work or classrooms". The draft also aims to ban women dancers performing during concerts and other public events as well as on television. Or in another one it is written that "The mass media including television and cable networks must avoid broadcasting programmes against Islamic morals", ofcourse without saying which morals are precisely meant.
Lastly, the sanction provided in this draft for violators is just fine (from 500 Afghanis to 5,000 /10 to 100 dollars), according to the AFP. This is however a big progress compared to harsh and inhumane whipping sentencing upheld in Taliban time and still practiced by the Criminal Justice System in Iran.
Further Reading
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