In September, the Taliban replaced Afghanistan’s women’s ministry with its Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

This ministry now insists that separating men and women is a fundamental Islamic value. It is. Women in Islam are inferior, and gender segregation is routine in mosques and across Islamic countries.

In Iran, the practice is enforced from kindergarten. The Taliban has opted to follow Iran’s model of governance, even appointing a Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, and Iran has pledged to work with the Taliban.

The Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice isn’t new:

The Ministry of Vice and Virtue existed during the previous Taliban period, from 1996 to 2001, when it became a notorious symbol of arbitrary abuses, particularly against women and girls. The ministry ruthlessly enforced restrictions on women and men through public beatings and imprisonment. The ministry beat women publicly for, among other things, wearing socks that were not sufficiently opaque; showing their wrists, hands, or ankles; and not being accompanied by a close male relative. It barred women from educating girls in home-based schools, from working, and from begging.

Deplorably, ten countries signed a joint statement in a Moscow meeting in late October about “humanitarianism” in Afghanistan, which moved toward legitimizing the Taliban. The statement read:

It was stated that further practical engagement with Afghanistan needed to take into account the new reality, that is the Taliban coming to power in the country, irrespective of the official recognition of the new Afghan government by the international community.

This statement of tacit recognition of the Taliban is nearly as reprehensible as signing a statement of “practical engagement” with the Islamic State, which continues to take over territory in Africa and work toward establishing and expanding Sharia domains — the same goal as that which is held by the Taliban. Iran and China have gone one step further and legitimized the Taliban as the “interim government” of Afghanistan.

Wherever Sharia is implemented, women’s rights are curtailed. The stricter a country or territory adheres to the Sharia, which is considered divine law, the more women suffer.