VOA News
September 8, 2023
Human Rights Watch said in a report Friday it “has concluded” that Afghanistan’s Taliban is committing the crime against humanity of gender persecution against Afghanistan’s women and girls.
Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, it has been widely reported that the group has sought to deny women and girls basic human rights and to remove them from public life.
According to Afghanistan Under the Taliban: The Crime Against Humanity of Gender Persecution, Taliban bans on Afghanistan’s females include restrictions on freedom of movement, expression, and association; restrictions on employment; restrictions on dress; bans on education; and arbitrary arrests and violations of the right to liberty.
Crimes against humanity can be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court, the report says, but they can also be prosecuted in “ad hoc international courts that have jurisdiction, the domestic courts of the country where the crimes took place, and in other countries’ courts in which the principle of universal jurisdiction applies.”
Human Rights Watch is urging the Taliban to dismantle all forms of repression and discrimination that result in the denial of the basic human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.
The organization is not alone in its criticism of the Taliban, earlier this year, a report from the United Nations Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on Afghanistan said the country’s rulers may be “responsible for gender apartheid,” exacerbating the plight of women and girls under its austere version of law.
The Taliban has accused the United Nations and Western institutions of spreading “propaganda” against their administration, arguing that Islamic laws are being implemented in Afghanistan and that any opposition is a problem with Islam.
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