Bush’s ‘new’ Afghanistan: old Taliban religious police to come back

Remember George W Bush’s rhetoric to promote his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, about human rights, women’s rights, blah blah blah blah … ?

From British daily The Independent:

Fury as Karzai plans return of Taliban’s religious police

By Tom Coghlan in Kabul

Published: 17 July 2006

The Afghan government has alarmed human rights groups by approving a plan to reintroduce a Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the body which the Taliban used to enforce its extreme religious doctrine.

The proposal, which came from the country’s Ulema council of clerics, has been passed by the cabinet of President Hamid Karzai and will now go before the Afghan parliament.

“Our concern is that the Vice and Virtue Department doesn’t turn into an instrument for politically oppressing critical voices and vulnerable groups under the guise of protecting poorly defined virtues,” Sam Zia Zarifi of Human Rights Watch said.

“This is specially in the case of women, because infringements on their rights tend to be justified by claims of morality.”

Meanwhile, what is Bush doing to women’s rights in his own country?

From Women’s eNews:

Women Press U.S. Violations at U.N. Rights Review

Run Date: 07/17/06

By Bojana Stoparic
WeNews correspondent

When the U.N. Human Rights Committee in Geneva reviews U.S. compliance with a civil and political rights agreement this week, advocates will be raising women’s rights violations in a critical shadow report.

British troops in Afghanistan: here.

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