Human Rights Watch today condemned the decision by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban requiring Hindu citizens to wear distinguishing identification. Human Rights Watch urged countries with diplomatic or informal relations with the Taliban to advise its leaders against issuing and enforcing such an edict.
"The decision is further evidence of the ascendancy of hardliners within the Taliban," said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division. "And it will leave the Hindu minority vulnerable to harassment and intimidation. In effect, Afghan Hindus are being forced to wear a badge of second-class citizenship."
Although a formal edict does not yet appear to have been issued, reports carried on May 23, 2001 by the Taliban's Radio Shariat and Bakhtar news agency said that a decision requiring Hindus to wear distinctive clothing had been made by the Kabul-based Council of the Ulema. Taliban representatives have said that the measure is intended to protect Hindus from being stopped by the religious police belonging to the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
Human Rights Watch said requiring Afghan Hindus to wear distinguishing marks is likely instead to have a stigmatizing effect and does not have an apparent protective function. Afghans who expect to have dealings with officials already carry identification cards issued by the Interior Ministry that indicate their religion. Moreover, the identity of local Hindus is well-known in the communities where they live.
There have been credible reports of arbitrary arrests and extortion of other ethnic and religious minorities in Taliban-held areas of Afghanistan, and the new decision aimed at Afghan Hindus raises concern that they may be vulnerable to similar treatment. The Taliban's move to publicly identify Hindus is also likely to hasten their exodus from Afghanistan. The Hindu population has already been reduced by at least one-half through emigration in recent years.
The planned restrictions on Afghan Hindus appear to reflect the increasing strength of hardline elements in the Taliban movement. The death from cancer of Mullah Mohammad Rabbani earlier this year removed an important moderating influence within the Taliban leadership, and there have been reports the Taliban's main consultative bodies, or shuras, are no longer functioning. The narrowing of the Taliban's power structure to a hardline circle is also believed to underly recent measures that have restricted the provision of humanitarian aid.
Last week, police from the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue raided an Italian-funded emergency hospital in Kabul, beating several staff members and forcing the hospital to suspend operations because male and female staff allegedly mixed in the dining area and operating wards. Taliban authorities have also recently blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid to large parts of the Hazarajat region, which is populated mainly by Shi'a Muslims and includes centers of armed opposition activity.
