New Taliban laws forbid women from looking at men, singing in public, traveling solo

(ZEROHEDGE) – Just over three years after taking power in the wake of the disastrously-executed US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban government has issued its first formal vice laws, which include many sharp restrictions on the conduct of women, alongside broader societal rules.

“Inshallah, we assure you that this Islamic law will be of great help in the promotion of virtue and the elimination of vice,” said Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice spokesman Maulvi Abdul Ghafar Farooq on Thursday. (“Inshallah” translates as “If God wills it.”) The Taliban created the ministry upon taking over the country, and it has the lead responsibility for enforcement via warnings and arrests.

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Spanning 114 pages and comprising 35 articles, the new set of laws was published Wednesday after being approved by Afghanistan’s reclusive Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. Focusing on women, Article 13 requires women’s bodies to be veiled whenever they’re in public, to avoid tempting or being tempted. It stipulates that the covering should be thick, loose and long, the Associated Press reported.