The Afghan government has alarmed human rights groups by approving a plan to reintroduce a Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the body which the Taliban used to enforce its extreme religious doctrine.

The proposal, which came from the country’s Ulema council of clerics, has been passed by the cabinet of President Hamid Karzai and will now go before the Afghan parliament.

”Our concern is that the Vice and Virtue Department doesn’t turn into an instrument for politically oppressing critical voices and vulnerable groups under the guise of protecting poorly defined virtues,” Sam Zia Zarifi of Human Rights Watch said. ”This is specially in the case of women, because infringements on their rights tend to be justified by claims of morality.”

Enligt religionsministern ska det nya Sedlighetsdepartementet dock vara snällare än sin föregångare. Men inbördeskriget går inte så bra för USA och Kabul-regeringen. Sedlighetsministeriets återupprättande är ett försök att undergräva talibanernas stöd bland de konservativa.

Sverige har trupper i Afghanistan. Det militära och politiska läget är oroande.