The Taliban’s treatment of Afghan women and girls, including their exclusion from parks and gyms as well as schools and universities, might amount to a crime against humanity, a group of UN experts said on Friday.
The assessment by UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan Richard Bennett and nine other UN experts says the treatment of women and girls might amount to “gender persecution” under the Rome Statute to which Afghanistan is a party.
Responding to the assessment, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesman for the Taliban’s ministry of foreign affairs, said: “The current collective punishment of innocent Afghans by the UN sanctions regime all in the name of women rights and equality amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Photo: Reuters
The experts said in a statement that women’s confinement to their homes was “tantamount to imprisonment,” adding that it was likely to lead to increased levels of domestic violence and mental health problems.
The experts cited the arrest this month of female activist Zarifa Yaqobi and four male colleagues.
They remain in detention, the experts said.
Photo: AP
The Taliban took over from a Western-backed government in August last year.
Its leaders say that it respects women’s rights in accordance with Islamic law.
Western governments have said that the Taliban needs to reverse its course on women’s rights, including its U-turn on signals that it would open girls’ high schools, for any path toward formal recognition of the Taliban government.
Separately, Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the UN’s human rights office, called for the Taliban authorities to immediately halt the use of public floggings in Afghanistan.
Shamdasani said that the office had documented numerous such incidents this month, including a woman and a man lashed 39 times each for spending time alone together outside of marriage.
“Corporal punishment is a human rights violation under international law,” Shamdasani said. “We are also concerned that arrests, court hearings, sentencing and punishments are often all carried out on the same day.”
Balkhi said that the Taliban administration considered the statement by the UN and others by Western officials “an insult towards Islam and violation of international principals.”
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