The Taliban responded to accusations of gender discrimination on Thursday, calling such claims "absurd." This comes as four nations namely - Australia, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands—have pledged to hold the Taliban accountable under international law for their treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan.
These countries announced their initiative on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, which will run until Monday. They are set to initiate legal proceedings against the Taliban for breaching a U.N. convention aimed at eliminating discrimination against women, a treaty to which Afghanistan is a signatory.
Since taking control in 2021, the Taliban have imposed significant restrictions on women and girls, barring them from education beyond sixth grade, access to many public spaces, and numerous job opportunities. Recently, the Vice and Virtue Ministry enacted laws mandating women cover their faces in public and limiting their ability to speak out.
In support of the legal action, over 20 countries expressed their condemnation of the Taliban's systematic human rights violations, particularly against women and girls. They emphasized that Afghanistan is legally accountable for violating the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The nations also declared that they do not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. They stated, “Afghanistan’s failure to uphold its human rights treaty obligations hinders normalization of relations.”
In response, Taliban deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat insisted that human rights are upheld in Afghanistan, arguing that no one is subjected to discrimination. He criticized the accusations as propaganda fueled by a few exiled Afghan women seeking to misrepresent the situation in the country.
"It is absurd to accuse the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan of violating human rights and gender discrimination," Fitrat stated on social media.
The Taliban continues to dismiss all critiques of their policies affecting women and girls, claiming such criticisms amount to foreign interference. They assert that their actions align with their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.
Fereshta Abbasi, an Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch, encouraged other nations to back the legal efforts of the four countries and include Afghan women in the process. “The announcement by Germany, Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands could mark the start of a journey toward justice for the Taliban's severe human rights abuses against Afghan women and girls,” Abbasi said.
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