Afghanistan’s Taliban government has shown a willingness to deal with other countries, including India, on various issues. However, on the issue of women, it has taken several steps backward. The world no longer seems particularly interested in the plight of Afghan women, preoccupied as it is with deadly conflicts in West Asia and Ukraine. A whimsical administration in the US does not seem to consider women’s rights in any part of the world as of concern anymore.

Over the last year, the ministry of justice under the Taliban has strengthened an existing law on ‘The Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice’ to bring in more stringent rules for women.

Considering the number of women-related injunctions in this law – each more draconian than the next – the Taliban perceive women as a major danger to their concept of an ideal State. Article 13 (1), states that a woman is required to cover her entire body. “A........

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