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yesterday

UN Expert Declares Taliban’s Legal Repression of Afghan Women Crimes Against Humanity

The U.N. Special Rapporteur warns that Afghanistan’s judiciary has been co-opted to strip women of constitutional safeguards, enforcing broad bans on their education, work and public mobility.

Afghan burqa-clad women wait in a queue to receive free iftar meal during the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan, on the outskirts of Kabul on March 12, 2025. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
FILE - A Taliban fighter stands guard as women wait to receive food rations distributed by a humanitarian aid group in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
Afghan girls attend a religious studies class at the Tasnim-e-Nusrat religious education center in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, May 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Overview

  • Richard Bennett, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, concluded in his August report that the Taliban’s systematic use of courts to punish women and girls constitutes crimes against humanity
  • The Taliban suspended the 2004 constitution and nullified landmark laws that criminalized violence against women after seizing power in 2021
  • All female judges, prosecutors and lawyers were dismissed and replaced by untrained male loyalists who apply Taliban edicts instead of legal precedent
  • Girls have been barred from education beyond sixth grade, most women’s employment is banned and women are prohibited from parks, gyms, salons and other public spaces
  • The International Criminal Court has requested arrest warrants for senior Taliban leaders over gender-based persecution as global bodies press for accountability