Taliban ruling through extreme forms of misogyny, say UN experts

UN experts in their findings on the state of human rights and discrimination against Afghan women in Afghanistan, said that the Taliban through its “most extreme forms of misogyny” has been destroying the relative progress towards gender equality achieved in the past two decades in the country, Afghanistan based Khaama Press reported.

This came following UN experts’ eight-day visit to Afghanistan. UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett was also a part of the visit.

The mission took place from April 27 to May 4 in the context of a chronic humanitarian crisis and profound turmoil due to the most recent verdict banning Afghan women from working with the United Nations and non-governmental organizations, Khaama Press reported.

The UN report said: “Since the collapse of the Republic, the de facto authorities have dismantled the legal and institutional framework and have been ruling through the most extreme forms of misogyny, destroying the relative progress towards gender equality achieved in the past two decades. The Taliban impose certain interpretations of religion that appear not to be shared by the vast majority of Afghans.”

Several organisations continue to provide crucial humanitarian assistance and protection to the most marginalized people in the country.

The Taliban said that the women were working in the health, and education sectors, stressing that women could work according to Sharia, separated from men. The Taliban has said women’s rights are an internal affair and that the international community should not interfere.

“The de facto authorities reiterated their message that they were working on reopening schools, without providing a clear timeline and indicated that the international community should not interfere in the country’s internal affairs,” according to the UN report.

Based on the UN report, women and girls’ lives in the country are devastated by the crackdown on their human rights. “We are alive, but not living,” said one of the woman interlocutors stated in the report.

The report concluded, “We urge the de facto authorities to comply with their obligations under international human rights instruments to which Afghanistan is a State party, especially CEDAW, and honour their commitments towards protecting and promoting all women’s and girls’ rights”, according to Khaama Press. 

(ANI)