UN expert criticizes Taliban restrictions on women’s freedom

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan Richard Bennett said that the restrictions imposed by the Taliban on the freedoms of women and girls could amount to a crime against humanity.

Bennett and other UN experts said that the Taliban’s persecution of women and girls exacerbates “egregious violations of their human rights and freedoms, which are among the worst in the world and can amount to gender-based persecution as a crime against humanity.”

And most women who used to work in government jobs have lost their jobs or are receiving meager benefits to stay at home since the Taliban took power again in August 2021.

Afghan women were also banned from traveling without a mahram and forced to wear the veil or hijab outside the home. This month, the Taliban banned women from parks, nightclubs, gyms and public baths, and high schools were closed in most parts of the country. country.

In a statement, the UN experts said: “Violations of fundamental rights and freedoms in Afghanistan have become significantly more frequent, which are essentially unacceptable and are among the most serious in the world.”

“Isolating women in their homes is tantamount to imprisonment and can lead to increased levels of domestic violence and mental health problems,” they added.

Experts said that women’s rights activists who peacefully demonstrated against the restrictions were increasingly harassed, beaten and arrested over the course of several months, and believe that the Taliban’s discriminatory measures “should be investigated as gender-based oppression, which should be prosecuted in accordance with international law. “

The experts do not speak for the United Nations, but have been asked to investigate and report to an international body, and called on the Taliban to respect women’s fundamental rights, calling on the international community to demand the restoration of women’s rights and freedoms.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights specifically expressed “shock” at the flogging of 11 men and three women in Afghanistan, calling for “an immediate end to this heinous form of punishment.”

They were lashed after being found guilty of theft and committing “crimes against morality,” an official in Logar province said, and the flogging sentences are the first to be confirmed since the Taliban supreme leader ordered earlier this month judges to comply with Sharia law.

Source: AFP.

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