UN experts denounce Taliban treatment of women as crime

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban cure of gals and women in Afghanistan may perhaps total to a criminal offense towards humanity and need to be investigated and prosecuted underneath international regulation, a U.N. staff of experts reported Friday.

The Taliban promptly turned down the allegation.

The statement by the U.N.-appointed specialists adopted a affirmation from the Taliban that three ladies ended up amongst 12 folks lashed on Wednesday in entrance of hundreds of spectators at a provincial sports stadium. It signaled the Taliban’s resumption of a brutal type of punishment that was a hallmark of their rule in the 1990s.

And on Nov. 11 in Taloqan in northeastern Takhar province, 10 adult males and nine women were lashed 39 occasions every single in the existence of elders, scholars and people at the city’s main mosque after Friday prayers. They have been accused of adultery, theft and running away from dwelling.

The U.N. gurus said the newest Taliban steps from gals and girls have deepened present rights violations — currently the “most draconian globally” — and could constitute gender persecution, which is a criminal offense towards humanity.

The Taliban overran Afghanistan in August 2021 as American and NATO forces were being in the remaining weeks of their pullout from the place immediately after 20 years of war. Inspite of initially promising a additional average rule and permit for women’s and minority legal rights, they have restricted legal rights and freedoms and broadly applied their harsh interpretation of Islamic regulation, or Sharia.

They have banned ladies from middle faculty and superior faculty, limited girls from most employment, and ordered them to use head-to-toe apparel in general public. Ladies are also banned from parks, fitness centers, and funfairs.

Lashings in general public, as well as community executions and stoning for purported crimes had been typical throughout Afghanistan during the very first period of time of Taliban rule, from 1996 until eventually 2001, when they were being driven out in a U.S.-led invasion pursuing the September 11 terrorist assaults. The Taliban had sheltered al-Qaida and its chief, Osama bin Laden.

The experts’ assertion did not exclusively point out the circumstances of general public lashings but mentioned the Taliban have overwhelmed males accompanying women donning colourful apparel or without a encounter masking.

“We are deeply worried that these kinds of steps are supposed to compel guys and boys to punish females and women who resist the Taliban’s erasure of them, more depriving them of their legal rights, and normalizing violence from them,” it stated.

It urged the Taliban to reinstate the legal rights and freedoms for Afghan females, release activists from detention and restore access to educational facilities and community spaces.

The skilled workforce, appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council, contains Richard Bennett, specific rapporteur on the predicament of human rights in Afghanistan, and Farida Shaheed, unique rapporteur on the ideal to training.

The Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, rejected the experts’ assertion and fired again at the U.N. for sanctioning the previous insurgents who now rule Afghanistan.

Balkhi, in a information to The Associated Push, mentioned what he mentioned amounts to war crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity by the globe entire body, including the “current collective punishment of harmless Afghans by the U.N. sanctions regime, all in the identify of women’s rights and equality.”

Sanctions on Taliban officers and the freezing of billions in international forex reserves have limited obtain to international institutions and exterior funds that had supported Afghanistan’s assist-dependent financial state right before the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces.

No state in the globe has identified the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban simply call their administration, leaving them internationally and financially isolated.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it was looking at a spike in cases of boy or girl pneumonia and malnutrition, with the poverty amount expanding when compared to earlier several years, as humanitarian problems plummet and the nation braces alone for a second winter season less than Taliban rule.