The Taliban’s new laws: Is this Shariah?

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Photo by Amber Clay on Pixabay

The Taliban’s latest policies impose an array of extreme restrictions on Afghan women, severely curtailing their freedoms in public life, education, employment and healthcare. These measures mandate a strict dress code requiring women to wear full-body coverings, such as the burka, that conceal them completely. This interpretation of Islamic law – emphasising control over attire and bodily autonomy – goes far beyond Shariah’s core principles, which aim to promote modesty with dignity rather than with coercive, punitive mandates. By enforcing such strictures, the Taliban project a rigid worldview that is fundamentally authoritarian and dismissive of women’s rights, sharply diverging from the broader Islamic teachings that recognise women’s agency and value in society.

At the heart of these laws is a perception of Afghan men that is as damaging as it is troubling. The Taliban’s restrictions are rooted in the belief that men are unable to interact respectfully with women without being overwhelmed by desire, implying that men are weak in character, ruled by their instincts, and thus require strict social barriers to prevent misconduct. This view of men as inherently lacking in self-control is not only unfounded, but also misrepresents Islamic teachings on personal accountability and virtue. Shariah promotes the importance of personal moral integrity, regardless of gender, and views self-restraint and respect for others as essential components of a virtuous life. By implying that Afghan men cannot engage honourably in mixed-gender settings, the Taliban diminish their dignity, casting them as creatures requiring constant regulation rather than as individuals capable of integrity and moral responsibility.

This damaging portrayal of men as unable to control their impulses around women suggests more about the Taliban’s anxieties than it does about Afghan society as a whole. The laws reflect a deep-rooted desire for social control, one that bypasses Shariah’s emphasis on inner virtues and personal moral development. Shariah encourages both men and women to exercise modesty, not out of compulsion but from an internal sense of honour and discipline. In bypassing these core teachings, the Taliban’s mandates reveal an authoritarian tendency that reduces Afghan men and women to roles defined by fear and repression rather than by respect and trust. Instead of encouraging Afghan men to develop moral fortitude, the Taliban laws imply a society governed by suspicion, where men and women are isolated from one another to avoid temptation. This vision contradicts the Islamic model, where men and women are expected to interact with honour and respect.

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In Islam, women have historically contributed as scholars, business leaders and social advocates. The Taliban’s insistence on removing women’s voices from the public sphere not only erases this legacy, but also disregards Shariah’s support for women’s involvement in their communities.
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The Taliban’s laws do not stop with clothing and segregation; they extend into more personal aspects of women’s lives, imposing severe restrictions on their public presence and speech. Women are prohibited from raising their voices in public spaces, based on the Taliban’s belief that a woman’s voice could incite moral compromise in men. By interpreting a woman’s voice as part of her awrah – that which must be concealed – they seek to control women’s ability to engage meaningfully in society. This rigid perspective diverges from Islamic principles, which do not categorise a woman’s voice in such a way and, in fact, recognise women’s roles in public life. In Islam, women have historically contributed as scholars, business leaders and social advocates. The Taliban’s insistence on removing women’s voices from the public sphere not only erases this legacy, but also disregards Shariah’s support for women’s involvement in their communities.

Likewise, the Taliban’s rules for men reduce them to mere appearances by mandating that they maintain a beard of a specified length. This imposition, which equates masculinity with a three-finger-long beard, trivialises Islamic teachings that regard character and inner qualities as the real markers of faith. The Prophet Muhammad and his companions emphasised humility, respect and compassion as core values. To equate a beard’s length with a man’s worth, as the Taliban does, is a fundamental misreading of the lifestyle of the Prophet of Islam, which does not specify rigid guidelines for beard length as a measure of piety. Shariah regards a man’s moral worth by his actions, ethics and adherence to justice – not by his appearance. The Taliban’s focus on enforcing outward conformity rather than nurturing inner virtues is therefore a distortion of Islamic principles, reducing the faith to external markers and missing its spiritual and ethical depth.

This emphasis on external conformity over inner virtue reveals a broader authoritarian impulse within the Taliban’s governance. Rather than fostering a community of mutual respect, the Taliban’s rules divide society into controlled spaces of male and female, further isolated by attire and physical boundaries. Such measures suggest a governing philosophy based on fear, where individuals are assumed to lack the capacity for self-discipline or moral conduct. This outlook, where people’s worth and integrity are determined by their outward adherence to rigid rules, reflects a narrow interpretation of Shariah, focusing on punishment and control rather than the Islamic values of dignity, compassion and mutual respect.

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By stripping people of their individuality and freedom, the Taliban’s interpretation of Shariah robs Afghan men and women of the respect and agency they are afforded in Islam.
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The Taliban’s version of Shariah also isolates Afghanistan from the global community, mirroring the rigid policies of their 1990s regime. Rather than reflecting Afghan society’s actual cultural values or Islam’s teachings, these laws indicate a need for control rooted in the Taliban’s insecurities. By placing women as “temptations” to be hidden away and reducing men to beings of instinct who must be strictly managed, the Taliban project their own anxieties and authoritarian fears onto society at large. Their laws do not reflect Shariah’s broader vision, which encourages self-accountability and respect for others, nor do they resonate with the richer and more compassionate values of Afghan culture, which historically respected the diverse roles that both men and women played in society.

In enforcing such extreme controls, the Taliban reduce both men and women to shallow caricatures: women as objects to be hidden and men as beings ruled by impulse. Islam, in contrast, emphasizes the depth of human character, recognizing both genders as partners in society with mutual responsibilities and inherent dignity. By stripping people of their individuality and freedom, the Taliban’s interpretation of Shariah robs Afghan men and women of the respect and agency they are afforded in Islam. True Shariah fosters an environment of moral integrity, where both men and women are encouraged to respect, support, and uplift each other – values that stand in stark contrast to the Taliban’s narrow, authoritarian vision.

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