Taliban chief tells officials to enforce new morality law

Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has ordered Afghan officials to enact a sweeping new morality law curtailing women's rights and enshrining an austere vision of Islamic society.

Taliban authorities last month announced the law, which includes rules that women's faces, bodies and voices should be "covered" outside the home, among 35 articles dictating behaviour and lifestyle.

While many of the measures have been informally enforced since the Taliban's takeover in 2021, their formal codification sparked an outcry from the international community and rights groups.

Akhundzada told civil and military officials "they should implement...the law of promoting virtue in society", a statement by the Information and Culture Department of Faryab province said.

The reclusive Akhundzada rules by decree from a hideout in southern Kandahar province but made the order in a rare trip to northern Faryab last week, according to the statement released on Sunday.

The new law prohibits women from raising their voices in public and requires them to cover their entire body and face if they need to leave their homes, which they should only do "out of necessity".

Akhundzada was in Faryab on Friday after visiting Badghis province in his first official visit to northern Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, said Faryab's Department of Information and Culture head Shamsullah Mohammadi.