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Afghanistan's Taliban on Wednesday defended a decree requiring non-Muslims to wear yellow badges, a move that has triggered international outrage and evoked memories of Jews forced to wear yellow stars in Nazi Germany.
Senior Taliban information ministry official Mullah Abdulhanan Himat told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press that the ruling aimed to protect Hindus and other minorities from the demands of religious police enforcing Muslim rules.
"The ulema (religious scholars) have issued a decree that the non-Muslims in Afghanistan should have a mark of distinction," he said.
"Under the decree the Ministry of Vice and Virtue has made it mandatory for the Hindus to wear a yellow badge on their chests," he added.
Himat said the order came in response to demands from Afghan Hindus. There are around 1,700 Sikhs and Hindus living in Afghanistan.
"This order was issued on the demand of Hindus who were concerned all the time because the workers of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice would always ask them to grow a beard or go and offer prayers in the mosque," he said.
The decision - which Himat said did not apply to visitors to Afghanistan - has produced outrage in the West.
Outrage
The anger was similar to that following the order of the Taliban's leader Mullah Mohammad Omar earlier this year to destroy all "idols" in Afghanistan -- including two massive ancient Buddhist statues which were blown into rubble.
Washington has condemned the move as "the latest in a long list of outrageous repressions".
"...forcing social groups to wear distinctive clothing or identifying marks stigmatises and isolates those groups and can never, never be justified," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a news conference.
The move also produced anger in India, where a hardline Hindu group said a dress code for non-Muslims could inflame passions there.
Himat said a formal order to enforce the decree had not yet been issued and other Taliban sources said privately they hoped implementation would be stopped.
Based on Islamic law
But the Taliban-controlled Voice of Shariat radio quoted religious police chief Maulawi Abdul Wali on Tuesday as saying the order was based on Islamic law.
"This decision is in accordance with the Sharia (Islamic law)," said Wali, head of the religious police who work directly under orders of the Taliban leader.
The decree was the latest sign of an increasingly hard line by the Taliban inside the 90 percent of Afghanistan they claim to control.
Their actions this month have shown no willingness to satisfy the two main goals of the United Nations: negotiating an end to the devastating civil war and ending support for foreign militants such as Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden.
The slim hopes of an end to the war between the Taliban and their last opponents were dealt another blow with the closure this week of all but one Taliban-area office of the UN representative in charge of starting peace talks.
Last week the United Nations complained that Taliban authorities have been abusing the aid workers who provide most of the social services in the shattered country.
© Reuters
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