The Taliban’s treatment of female and girls in Afghanistan could be considered as a crime against humanity, according to a UN report released on Monday at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The Taliban captured power in August 2021, drastically cutting women’s freedoms and rights, with their freedom to attend even high school and university.
In a report from July to December 2022, the UN Special Rapporteur on the circumstances of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, got the information that the Taliban’s treatment of female and girls “may be considered as gender persecution, and a crime against humanity”.
“The Taliban’s intentional and well-thoughtout policy is to kill the human rights of female inclduing women and girls and to remove them from public life,” Bennett told the United Nations Human Rights Council.
“It may tentamount to the international crime of gender persecution for which the authorities can be held responsible.”
A spokesperson for the Taliban-run information ministry could not immediately respond to a request for comments. The Taliban have in the past said they respect women’s rights in connection with their interpretation of Islam. They also say that the Afghan culture and that they plan to open education institutions in future once they meet certain conditions for girls.
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Bennett said the Human Rights Council should convey a strong point of view to the Taliban that the “abysmal treatment of women and girls is not allowable and it is unjustified on any ground, including religion”.
“The cumulative effect of the restrictions on women and girls has been devastating, long-term impact is huge on the whole population, and it is not less than to gender apartheid,” he said.
In last December, the Taliban banned most female aid workers too, prompting many aid agencies to partially suspend operations in the midst of a humanitarian crisis expanding during the cold winter months.
