It's nice we have straightened out Afghanistan. No more nasty Taliban.
The Department for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which is the formal name for the religious police who enforced strict, conservative Islamic law during the 1990's, is being reinstated by President Karzai's government, according to Afghan officials.
Although crackdowns on forms of expression deemed un Islamic have generally come from the courts, and although conservative Islamists are currently the main block in Parliament, this initiative came from the President's recently approved Cabinet. (Pak Tribune)
The religious police under the Taliban punished anyone for listening to music or drinking alcohol. They even detained Afghans without trial.
Imagine that.
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From Human Rights Watch:
"Under the Taliban, the vice and virtue department became a notorious symbol of arbitrary abuses, particularly against Afghan women and girls. The department ruthlessly enforced restrictions on women and men through public beatings and imprisonment. The department beat women publicly for, among other things, wearing socks that were not sufficiently opaque; showing their wrists, hands, or ankles; and not being accompanied by a close male relative. They stopped women from educating girls in home-based schools, working, and begging. They also beat men for trimming their beards."
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/07/18/afghan13759.htm
"Human Rights Watch collected reports of 204 attacks (including attempts) on schools, teachers, and students from January 2005 to June 21, 2006. Of these attacks, 110 occurred in the first half of 2006. The pattern of these reports indicates a sharp rise in the targeting of Afghanistan's education process in late 2005 and in 2006."
http://hrw.org/reports/2006/afghanistan0706/10.htm#_Toc139263917
Not just under the Taliban apparently.
Yes, imagine detaining people without trial...like at Guantanamo, extraordinary rendition destinations, and like that.
The rule of law is suffering in many places now.
The Taliban cracked down on women to destroy the State. (And have said as much, no link sorry.)
They sent all the women functionaries (50% of functionaries, they had a quota system) and teachers (50% or so in the lower reaches, somewhat less at University) and doctors (40% of doctors) home.
That is why they had to arrest and beat women, to show they were willing to enforce that ban. In a chaotic void, of course both men (husbands, fathers) and women (small girls) obeyed...
The latest pro-Taleb type measures are an attempt to appease, a stab for control .. completely misguided an unproductive, a sign of failure.