The Taliban’s treatment of Afghan women and girls, including excluding them from parks and gyms, as well as schools and universities, may amount to a crime against humanity, a group of UN experts said on Friday. An assessment by UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan Richard Bennett and nine other UN experts says the treatment of women and girls may amount to “gender-based persecution” under the Rome Statute, to which Afghanistan is a party.
Responding to the assessment, Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said: “The current collective punishment of innocent Afghans by the UN sanctions regime, all in the name of women’s rights and equality, amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity.” UN experts said in a statement that imprisoning women in their homes was “tantamount to imprisonment”, adding that it was likely to lead to increased rates of domestic violence and mental health problems. Experts said activist Zarifa Yaqobi and four male colleagues were arrested this month. They remain in custody, experts said.
The Taliban took over from a Western-backed government in August 2021. They say they respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law. Western governments have said the Taliban must change course on women’s rights, including their signals that they would open girls’ high schools, to have any path to formal recognition of the Taliban government.
A spokesman for the UN human rights office specifically called on the Taliban authorities to immediately stop the use of public flogging in Afghanistan. Ravina Shamdasani said the authority had documented a number of such incidents this month, including the 39 lashes of a woman and a man for spending time alone outside of marriage. Balkhi said the Taliban administration considers the statement by the UN and other Western officials “an insult to Islam and a violation of international principles.”
