The UN in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Thursday released a report on the impact, implementation and enforcement of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) law on the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice (PVPV law) and found there to be a determination by IEA authorities to ensure their vision of a pure Islamic system is implemented nationwide.

The report covers the six-month period since the law’s promulgation in August last year. UNAMA stated it had “observed overall more systematic and consistent efforts in the de facto authorities’ enforcement of the PVPV law led by the de facto Ministry of the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and Hearing of Complaints compared to the de facto authorities’ enforcement of earlier decrees.”

UNAMA noted that these efforts include the establishment of implementation committees in 28 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, and the deployment of about 3,300 PVPV inspectors with broad discretionary powers.

According to the report, UNAMA also observed far-reaching socio-economic impacts on Afghan men and women, “including increased restrictions on Afghans’ personal and private spaces and on women and girls’ access to public spaces and healthcare, dress code, and travel.

The report stated that the direct and indirect socio-economic effects of the law’s implementation are likely to compound Afghanistan’s dire economic and humanitarian situation, including on the ability of UN agencies and international NGOs to deliver humanitarian and basic human needs assistance to millions of people across Afghanistan.

In response to this report, however, the Ministry for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice has stated that it has helped thousands of women to secure their rights and has saved them from forced marriages in all provinces.

The ministry added that it has prevented abuses to eliminate undesirable customs and traditions in the country.

According to the ministry, a number of unknown groups, to achieve their malicious goals, have ignored all these achievements and seek to confuse public opinion.

This comes after the UN Security Council stated in a resolution on Afghanistan in December last year that it was seriously concerned “about the increasing erosion of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular for women and girls and their lack of equal access to education, employment, justice, economic opportunities, full, equal and meaningful participation in public life, freedom of movement, and enjoyment of basic services – the absence of which make peace, stability, and prosperity in the country unattainable.”

The UNSC reiterated “its call for the Taliban (IEA) to swiftly reverse these policies and practices, including the “vice and virtue” directive”.