Taliban accused of showing ‘contempt’ for rights of women

The governments of Australia, Canada, Germany, and The Netherlands have stated their intention to take Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government to the International Court of Justice for policies they say show the Islamic Emirate’s “contempt” for the rights of women and girls.

At an event in New York, they announced they had initiated proceedings against the Islamic Emirate at The Hague for alleged violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which Afghanistan has been a signatory to for decades.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the Islamic Emirate had “engaged in a campaign of sustained and systematic oppression” against women and girls in the country.

The move comes after the Taliban government last month authorised its Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice to punish anyone perceived to be in violation of a new set of morality laws it says is based on Islamic law. If the laws are enforced en masse, it would mean that women must cover their faces when out in public and their voices mustn’t be heard on public airwaves.

It has now been more than three years since girls were able to study beyond the sixth grade in Afghanistan. At the end of 2022, the Islamic Emirate announced that it would no longer allow women to attend university. It has also not yet allowed women to return to work in the majority of government positions.

The Islamic Emirate responded to the ICJ announcement with an online statement, saying that human rights in Afghanistan were secure, and labelling the effort to censure them by the Western governments as a “propaganda campaign”.

In a post on X, the Islamic Emirate’s deputy spokesperson, Hamdullah Fitrat, said: “Unfortunately, there is a propaganda campaign being perpetrated by a few women who are against Afghanistan to try and paint an incorrect image of the situation using inaccurate information in order to create a false perception of the current situation.”

Neither the UN, nor any of the four countries in question, recognises the Islamic Emirate as the official government of Afghanistan. It wasn’t immediately clear what bearing this might have on any potential ICJ case.

Qatar addressed the status of women in Afghanistan at the UNGA by pledging $75 million in aid intended for programmes to benefit women, including scholarship opportunities and training programmes in sectors like healthcare, where women are still able to work.

For more on how the Taliban’s restrictions on the rights of women and girls are clashing with its apparent desire for greater international engagement and recognition, read our recent analysis: