of female candidates. During the first period of Taliban rule, women had virtually all their rights taken away. Matters ranging from wearing nail polish to job opportunities were severely restricted. By keeping women indoors, the Taliban claimed to be keeping them safe from harm. In late March 2009, Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed into law an internationally condemned "Shia Family Law" which condones apparent spousal rape (in Article 132), child marriage and imposes purdah on married Afghan women. Although the offending legislation is said to have been dormant for a year, President Karzai was trying to gain the support of Afghan northern Shia legislators and the neighbouring Islamic Republic of Iran, which is Shia-dominated. According to Britain's Independent newspaper, the 'family code' was not read in the Upper House/Senate, and also enshrines gender discrimination in inheritance law and divorce against women. Despite various promises from the government to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, the law could not be implemented. The Kabul peace talks that took place in June 2017, included only two women among 47 government and international representatives. On 18 September 2020, President Ashraf Ghani signed a new law to include mothers' names on their children's birth certificates and identification cards. Afghan women's rights activists had been campaigning on social media for several years to include the name of both parents, under the hashtag #WhereIsMyName. In May 2022, the Taliban's Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice published a decree requiring all women in Afghanistan to wear full-body coverings when in public (either a burqa or an abaya paired with a niqāb, which leaves only the eyes uncovered). Sexual orientation Homosexuality and cross-dressing were capital crimes under the Taliban, but have been reduced to crimes punished by long prison sentences. Persecution of Hazaras Hazaras are one of the ethnic groups in Afghanistan. After the takeover by Taliban, many hazaras were forcibly evicted from their homes. A report by Amnesty International said that the Taliban are prosecuting, torturing and unlawfully killing hazaras. See also Crime in Afghanistan 2007 Shinwar shooting Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan Sayed Pervez Kambaksh References Life Under the Taliban, by Stewart, Gail B. External links Review of Afghanistan by the United Nations Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review, May 7, 2009. (Scroll down past New Zealand.) Afghanistan's MDG - Millennium Development Goals Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC)