“ONGOING PERSECUTION”
After sweeping back to power in August 2021, the Taliban authorities pledged a softer rule than their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.
But they quickly imposed restrictions on women and girls that the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid”.
Edicts in line with their interpretation of Islamic law handed down by Akhundzada, who rules by decree from the movement’s birthplace in southern Kandahar, have squeezed women and girls from public life.
The Taliban government barred girls from secondary school and women from university in the first 18 months after they ousted the US-backed government, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to impose such bans.
Authorities imposed restrictions on women working for non-governmental groups and other employment, with thousands of women losing government jobs – or being paid to stay home.
Beauty salons have been closed and women blocked from visiting public parks, gyms and baths as well as travelling long distances without a male chaperone.
A “vice and virtue” law announced last summer ordered women not to sing or recite poetry in public and for their voices and bodies to be “concealed” outside the home.
The ICC prosecutor’s office welcomed the warrants as “an important vindication and acknowledgement of the rights of Afghan women and girls”.
“Through the Taliban’s deprivation of fundamental rights to education, privacy and family life … Afghan women and girls were increasingly erased from public life,” said ICC prosecutors.
“The decision of the judges of the ICC affirms that their rights are valuable, and that their plight and voices matter.”
When requesting the arrest warrants in January, chief prosecutor Karim Khan warned he would seek warrants for other Taliban officials.
Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said the ICC warrants gave hope to women and girls inside and outside Afghanistan.
Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said the arrest warrants showed that “when justice is supported, victims can have their day in court”.
