Aghanistan's Ministry of Virtue and Vices

"Women are banned from all walks of life. And, now, not only are girls deprived of education, but boys' rights are being violated because they're not learning the skills and knowledge that will prepare them for the workforce, for tomorrow."

"They should be raised with all the dreams and desires in their heart. If I find any chance, I want to do something for them."

"I won't stop talking about them."

Najia Haneefi, Afghan refugee in Canada

"People are facing extrajudicial killings, detention, calls for banishment. The Taliban keeps releasing decrees that replace laws."

"Women can' go to university, school, work, travel alone, be on the TV or radio."

"They're confined to their homes."

Razia Sayad, human rights advocate, PhD student of law and legal studies, Afghan refugee in Canada

"There was no reliable mechanism to which women victims of domestic violence could turn. Courts and prosecution units that were previously responsible for investigating and adjudicating cases of gender-based violence remained shut. The Taliban authorities and community-level dispute resolution mechanisms both punished women for reporting domestic violence."

"Institutions designed to support human rights were severely limited or shut down completely. Peaceful protesters faced arbitrary arrests, torture and enforced disappearance."

"The Taliban conducted extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests, torture and unlawful detention of perceived opponents with impunity, creating an atmosphere of fear."

Amnesty International report

Women weave wool at traditional carpet factory/AP

When the United States and its allies left Afghanistan in 2021 and all troops were withdrawn, the Taliban returned to power, taking up where they left off after the U.S.-led invasion that led to the country being freed of Taliban oppression when al-Qaeda and the Taliban fled to the mountainous region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. With the return of the rule of the fundamentalist Islamist Taliban, sharia law was enforced, the previous justice system scrapped.

 

Repression of the population, and revenge meted out to those within the society who collaborated with the foreign presence, setting Kabul up to govern like a democracy, and introducing Western concepts of gender equality and justice saw women's place return to that of male possessions with no rights of their own. Girls in Afghanistan are now permitted to attend school up to Grade 6 only, banned from a secondary education and university attendance. Women may no longer serve as teachers to boys. 

 

Sewing workshop in Kabul/AP

 

Afghanistan has become a gender-apartheid country. Gender-segregation laws lock women out of social, political and economic life. Women are discouraged from working outside the home. And when outside the home they are expected to be accompanied by a male family member.The country's Ministry of Women's Affairs was disbanded and replaced with the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice which "issues restrictive and abusive decrees on women's and girls' rights".

A strict dress code is enforced, one that requires women to have chaperones in public and which bans women and girls from public parks, public baths and other sites among restricted public venues. Women who protested against restrictions were faced with "unlawful detention and violence".  According to a 2024 report from the United Nations, Afghan women's access to public life, particularly targeted to single women and those without male guardians, have been further restricted. Single women have been restricted in some provinces from accessing  health-care facilities.

Bus terminals are regularly visited by morality police where drivers are forbidden from permitting unchaperoned women to board buses. Girls and young women face forced marriages and sexual assault, leading them to attempt suicide when shunned by their families for being 'unclean'.  Internet services, available to those who can afford them, offer an opportunity to girls to help educate themselves once they can no longer attend school. A more recent decree banned women's beauty salons.

 

Medica Mondiale

"Girls in Afghanistan have been banned from secondary school and women from tertiary education. Women and girls have been banned from entering amusement parks, public baths, gyms and sports clubs for four months. Women have been banned from working in NGO offices. Since the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in August 2021, women have been wholly excluded from public office and the judiciary. Today, Afghanistan’s women and girls are required to adhere to a strict dress code and are not permitted to travel more than 75 km without a mahram. They are compelled to stay at home."

"All over the country, women report feeling invisible, isolated, suffocated, living in prison like conditions. Many are unable to have their basic needs met without access to employment or aid, including access to medical healthcare and psychological support in particular for victims of violence, including sexual violence. It’s a sobering reminder of how swiftly and aggressively women’s and girls’ rights can be taken away."

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner

Islamist Caliphate Group Retreating to the Dark Recesses of Jihad

"Until they can provide the right guidelines for the organization's English-language speaking areas they will avoid, as much as possible, their membership and activists making statements in the public arena."

"Unless they can control what their membership is saying in English, then they can't be sure that they aren't going to say something they will regret." 

"Australia and Canada tend to, in counterterrorism matters, follow where Britain goes. It will be quite likely that if the ban and proscription in Britain is upheld by the British courts, they will apply the same thing in Australia and Canada."

"The Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects democracy, it rejects participating in governance with other parties, it rejects the electoral process as a method of gaining power -- the only way is by the overthrow of government by revolution."

"The Hizb ut-Tahrir don't engage in material action, does not undertake violent acts. They can, however, be accused of 'sanitizing terror ideology and calling for revolutionary change."

"They express quite extreme forms of antisemitism."

"They don't do it as a group, so their members don't engage in it [violent action]. Neither do they call for their members to do so. However, they do believe that military action to liberate these countries is acceptable There is an ambiguity there."

Rashad Ali, resident senior fellow, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, counter-extremist think tank, London, England

"As a listed terrorist entity in the United Kingdom, the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization should not be given an opportunity to promote and indoctrinate Canadians with their extreme and radical viewpoints through their Khalifah Conference."

"If it had not been pre-emptively cancelled, we would have expected the authorities to step in to identify it as a potential security risk and prevent the conference from moving forward."

Shimon Koffler Fogel, president, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

A recent screen shot of the Hezb ut Tahrir Canada website before the group removed it from the internet. Photo by Screenshot / Hizb ut Tahrir

 

Following the U .K. declaring an Islamic organization a terrorist group, the Canadian branch of the group cancelled a scheduled conference meant to be hosted the past weekend, calling for the resurrection of the Muslim caliphate and the imposition of Shariah law. The plan was to convene the Hizb ut-Tahrir Canada conference in Mississauga. The Khalifah Conference 2024; Khalifah the Arabic word for caliphate, a Muslim community governed under Islamic (Sharia) law.

 

Posters, a website and a promotional video, reflect the group urging rejection of a Jewish state and the involvement of the United Nations, international law, or other 'compromises' in the Middle East, in favour of encouraging military forces in the Muslim world to defeat 'occupiers'. All meant for use during the conference. Those materials as well as its online presence in its entirety -- active since 2012 including a YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram and X accounts were deactivated or deleted internally. 

 

Prior to its cancellation the annual conference was a cause of concern, given its statements: antisemitic, dedicated to eradicating Israel, and though not committed to violence on its own, supporting militant jihadi violence from well known sources. U.K. Home Secretary James Cleverly speaking of Britain's proscription order stated: 

"Hizb ut-Tahrir is an antisemitic organization that actively promotes and encourages terrorism, including praising and celebrating the appalling 7 October attacks."

"Proscribing this terrorist group will ensure that anyone who belongs to and invites support for them will face consequences. It will curb Hizb ut-Tahrir's ability to operate as it currently does." The designation of a terrorist entity was effective from January 19.

 

A poster advertising Khilafah Conference 2024

A notification to registered attendees to the Khalifah Conference in Canada that the event was cancelled was accompanied with a note: "It is with a heavy heart that Hizb ut-Tahrir Canada has decided to cancel the Khalifah Conference 2024 because of unforeseen circumstances", apologizing for inconvenience, absent an explanation. Thematically the conference was dedicated to "Khalifah : Eliminating the obstacles that are delaying its return", with materials referring to Israel as "the Zionist Entity", emulating the Islamic Republic of Iran.

One of the keynote speakers, Muhammad Malkawi was quoted saying in a speech last month that if Muslims came together "You don't even need to fight for Palestine because there will not be a Jewish state there." He is based in Jordan, the location of Hizb ut-Tahrir's central headquarters. "He is very well known, very public, a popular speaker within the party and has been active for decades", explained Rashad Ali, a former leader with the group who now is involved in extremist deradicalization.

Another scheduled speaker, Mazin Abdul-Adhim is resident in London, Ontario, active on social media, describing himself as a Hizb ut-Tahrir member, his avatar on X, the logo for the cancelled conference. He reacted to Britain's ban stating: "By banning HT, they make us a much stronger force, impenetrable and absolutely bulletproof from their false allegations and lies". A similar conference is scheduled for March in Chicago, organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir America.

The organization has been banned in a number of countries, including Russia, China, Germany, Indonesia, and in most Arab countries. The group's message is one of overthrowing Muslim governments, posing as an enemy of many Muslim states. Ironically, it is not banned in Israel. The English translation of the organization' name is "Party of Liberation", founded in 1953 as a revolutionary party to serve as a springboard to power in countries with large Muslim populations in the spirit of unification to restore the Muslim empire of medieval times.

 

A Hizb ut-Tahrir demonstration outside the Egyptian embassy in London in November 2023 (X)

"[The British government says that Hizb ut-Tahrir] has a footprint in at least 32 countries [with its headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon]."

"The U.K. government assess that Hizb ut-Tahrir, including its national branches, is currently concerned in terrorism, and meets the 'promotes and encourages' limb of the statutory test."

"A number of articles were posted online on Hizb ut-Tahrir's central media website [and third-party websites], attributed to several of Hizb ut-Tahrir's branches, which celebrated and praised the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas and associated events."

"The content of these articles, many of which refer to Hamas as 'heroes', and encourage further terrorist activity constitute the promotion and encouragement of terrorism."

British government statement