Women back under wraps with Taliban vice squad | The World | The Australian

Women back under wraps with Taliban vice squad | The World | The Australian: "AFGHANISTAN'S notorious Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which was set up by the Taliban to enforce bans on women doing anything from working to wearing nail varnish or laughing out loud, is to be recreated by the Government in Kabul.

The decision has provoked an outcry among women and human rights activists who fear a return to the days when religious police patrolled the streets, beating or arresting any woman who was not properly covered by a burka or accompanied by a male relative.

'This is a very bad idea at a bad time,' said Sam Zia-Zarifi, the Asia research director of Human Rights Watch. 'We're close to the edge in Afghanistan. It really could all go wrong and it is alarming that the United Nations and Western governments are not speaking out on this issue.'"