HRW: The Afghan Taliban have created the world's worst women's rights crisis

2024-08-12 19:14:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

HRW: The Afghan Taliban have created the world's worst women's rights

Two women in burqas crossing a street in Herat province. October 20, 2021. Source, AFP

The Taliban have created "the world's worst women's rights crisis" since they returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, human rights watchdog Human Rights Watch said.

Under Taliban rule, Afghanistan has become the only country where girls are banned from going to school beyond the sixth grade, HRW said in a statement on August 11.

The Taliban have also "undermined women's right to freedom of movement, barred them from many forms of employment, removed protections for women and girls who experience gender-based violence, created barriers to their access to health care and they have taken away their right to play sports and even to visit the parks".

The pressure on Afghan women comes at a time when their country is also experiencing a major humanitarian crisis, with insufficient aid for thousands of Afghan refugees who have been forced to return to Afghanistan from Pakistan.

Women and girls are among those most affected by this humanitarian crisis, HRW said.

The situation has been described by the United Nations special rapporteur on Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, as "an institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity and the exclusion of women and girls," HRW said.

"Under the abusive Taliban rule, Afghan women and girls are experiencing their worst anguish," said Fereshta Abbasi from HRW.

Abbas called on all governments to "support efforts to hold the Taliban leadership accountable for all these serious crimes in Afghanistan."

Abbasi said that countries that engage with the Government in Kabul, led by the Taliban, must constantly remind this executive of "the violations it does against women and girls and all Afghans and the violations it does against international law."

More than half of Afghanistan's population – of 23 million – faces food insecurity, according to the UN.

The restrictions that the Taliban authorities have imposed on women and girls have hindered their access to health care, endangering their right to health, HRW pointed out.

This organization said that the ban on girls' education will cause a shortage of women working in the health system in the future.

HRW called on states to find ways to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis./ REL