The Diplomat
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares yesterday expressed Spain’s total rejection of the Taliban’s new law in Afghanistan that seeks to silence women and reaffirmed his condemnation of what he considers a new violation of human rights.
On his social media account X, the minister expressed the Spanish government’s position on the new law ratified by the Taliban that makes the veil obligatory for women and prohibits them from speaking out loud in public, among other restrictions, which has been denounced in the country by activists as an unacceptable attack against Afghan women.
“We totally reject the so-called law for the propagation of virtue of the Taliban in Afghanistan, which seeks to silence Afghan women,” Albares stressed, adding: “We condemn all violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls.”
The de facto government of Afghanistan framed in a law on Thursday many of the restrictions that it had already been applying for three years, addressing issues such as the full veil or hijab for women or the clothing of men, who are also forced to grow beards.
Dubbed the Law for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the legislation also prohibits drivers from transporting adult women without a legal male guardian.
Last Wednesday, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, regretted that “the Western world and Europe have forgotten Afghanistan” three years after the Taliban regained power in the Asian country. She did so during a visit to the Zaragoza Air Base, where he remembered, on the third anniversary of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the soldiers who died in the two decades of Spanish presence in the country.
A few days ago, sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that the Government is still not considering recognizing the Taliban regime three years after its takeover of Kabul consummated its return to power in Afghanistan and added that it will keep its Embassy in the Asian country closed for the time being.
