The Taliban’s treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan may constitute a crime against humanity and should be investigated and prosecuted under international law, a team of UN experts said on Friday.
The Taliban promptly denied the charge.
The statement by UN-appointed experts followed confirmation by the Taliban that three women were among 12 people whipped in front of hundreds of spectators at a provincial sports stadium on Wednesday. It signaled the Taliban’s resumption of a brutal form of punishment that was a hallmark of their rule in the 1990s.
And on November 11 in Taloqan, in the northeastern province of Takhar, 10 men and nine women were each whipped 39 times in the presence of elders, scholars and residents at the city’s main mosque after Friday prayers. They were accused of adultery, theft and running away from home.
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UN experts have said the latest Taliban actions against women and girls have aggravated existing rights violations – already “the most draconian globally” – and may amount to gender-based persecution, which is a crime against humanity. .
The Taliban invaded Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO forces were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from the country after 20 years of war. Despite initially promising a more moderate government and allowing for women’s and minority rights, they restricted rights and freedoms and largely implemented their harsh interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.
They banned girls from middle and high school, restricted most work to women, and ordered them to wear head-to-toe dresses in public. Women are also banned from parks, gyms and amusement parks.
A Taliban fighter stands guard in Kabul, Afghanistan April 25, 2022. A United Nations panel of experts has called for an investigation into the treatment of women in Afghanistan.
(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, Files)
Public flogging, as well as public executions and stoning for alleged crimes were common throughout Afghanistan during the early period of Taliban rule, from 1996 to 2001, when they were driven out in a US-led invasion after attacks 9/11 terrorists. The Taliban had protected al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden.
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The expert statement did not specifically mention the instances of public whipping, but said the Taliban beat men accompanying women who wore colorful clothes or without covering their faces.
“We are deeply concerned that such actions are intended to force men and boys to punish women and girls who oppose their deletion by the Taliban, further depriving them of their rights and normalizing violence against them,” he said.
She urged the Taliban to restore the rights and freedoms of Afghan women, release activists from detention and restore access to schools and public spaces.
The panel of experts, appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, includes Richard Bennett, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, and Farida Shaheed, special rapporteur on the right to education.
The Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, rejected the experts’ statement and fired back at the United Nations for sanctioning the former rebels who now rule Afghanistan.
Balkhi, in a message to the Associated Press, listed what he said amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity by the world body, including “the current collective punishment of innocent Afghans by the sanctions regime of the United Nations, all in the name of women’s rights and equality.”
Sanctions against Taliban officials and a freeze of billions in foreign currency reserves have limited access to global institutions and outside money that had supported Afghanistan’s aid-dependent economy prior to the withdrawal of US and NATO forces.
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No country in the world has recognized the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban call their administration, leaving them internationally and financially isolated.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday it was seeing a spike in cases of childhood pneumonia and malnutrition, with poverty levels rising from previous years as humanitarian conditions plummet and the country prepares for a second winter under the Taliban rule.
