Taliban trying to erase women from public life: UN experts

KABUL (Pajhwok): A group of UN human rights experts has said that the leaders of the “Islamic Emirate” in Afghanistan “are institutionalizing discrimination and violence against women and girls”, but the government rejected the claims as propaganda.

The experts on Monday said, “We are concerned about the continuous and systematic efforts to exclude women from the social, economic, and political spheres across the country.”

These concerns are exacerbated in the cases of women from ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities such as the Hazara, Tajik, Hindu and other communities whose differences or visibility make them even more vulnerable in Afghanistan, they added.

“In addition to severely limiting their freedom of movement, expression and association, and their participation in public and political affairs, these policies have also affected the ability of women to work and to make a living, pushing them further into poverty,” the experts said.

Of particular and grave concern is the continued denial of the fundamental right of women and girls to secondary and tertiary education, on the premise that women and men have to be segregated and that female students abide by a specific dress code, they added.

Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that targeted discrimination and violence have made life difficult for women and girls after the fall of the previous government.

The experts also expressed concern over steady women’s and girls’ deprivation from their basic rights to secondary and higher education and said that all schools had been shut for schoolgirls above seventh grades only for their gender.

“Today, we are witnessing the attempt to steadily erase women and girls from public life in Afghanistan including in institutions and mechanisms that had been previously set up to assist and protect those women and girls who are most at risk,” the experts said in reference to the closure of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

The experts also highlighted their concerns for women human rights defenders, women civil society activists and leaders, women judges and prosecutors, women in the security forces, women that were former government employees, and women journalists, all of whom have been considerably exposed to harassment, threats of violence and for whom civic space had been severely eroded. Many have been forced to leave the country as a result, the source said.

“We are also extremely disturbed by the reports of extrajudicial killings and forced displacement of ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Hazara, which would suggest deliberate efforts to target, ban, and even eliminate them from the country,” the experts said.

The experts reiterated their call to the international community to step up urgently needed humanitarian assistance for the Afghan people, and the realization of their right to recovery and development.

The experts also called on the international community to ensure that restrictions on women are removed and that human rights abuses against women, who make up half of the country’s population, are stopped.

On the other hand, Bilal Karimi, deputy government spokesman, in response to the claims said, “These are repetitive and propagandistic issues, women are currently working in government offices.”

Government officials have repeatedly emphasized on the education and work of women and have promised to reopen universities and schools to girls in the beginning of next 1401 solar year.

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