Mallika Dureja
The treatment of Afghan women and girls by the Taliban may constitute a crime against humanity, according to a United Nations report presented on Monday at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The Taliban usurped power in August 2021, severely restricting women’s rights and liberties, including their ability to attend high school or college.
Richard Bennett, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, concluded in a report covering July to December 2022 that the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls “may constitute gender persecution, a crime against humanity.”
Bennett informed the United Nations Human Rights Council that the Taliban’s deliberate and calculated policy is to deny the human rights of women and girls and eliminate them from public life. It may constitute the international offence of gender persecution, for which the government can be held liable.
A spokesperson for the information ministry administered by the Taliban did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Taliban have stated in the past that they respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islam and Afghan culture, and that they intend to open schools for females once certain conditions are met.
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Bennett stated that the Human Rights Council should send a forceful message to the Taliban that their treatment of women and girls is intolerable and cannot be justified on any religious basis.
“The cumulative effect of the restrictions on women and girls has a detrimental, long-term effect on the entire population, and is equivalent to gender apartheid,” he stated.
In December, the Taliban banned the majority of female relief workers, prompting many aid agencies to partially suspend operations in the midst of a winter humanitarian crisis.
