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The treatment of women by the Taliban refers to actions and policies by two distinct Taliban regimes in Afghanistan which are either specific or highly commented upon, mostly due to discrimination, since they first took control in 1996. During their first rule of Afghanistan, the Taliban were notorious internationally for their misogyny and violence against women. In 1996, women were mandated to wear the burqa at all times in public. In a systematic segregation sometimes referred to as gender apartheid, women were not allowed to work, nor were they allowed to be educated after the age of eight. Women seeking an education were forced to attend underground schools, where they and their teachers risked execution if caught. They were not allowed to be treated by male doctors unless accompanied by a male chaperone, which led to illnesses remaining untreated. They faced public flogging and execution for violations of the Taliban's laws.
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Human rights in Afghanistan are severely restricted, especially since Taliban's takeover of Kabul in August 2021. Women's rights and freedom are severely restricted as they are banned from most public spaces and employment. Afghanistan is the only country in the world to ban education for women over the age of eleven. Taliban's policies towards women are usually termed as gender apartheid. Minority groups such as Hazaras face persecution and eviction from their lands. Authorities have used physical violence, raids, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, enforced disappearances of activists and political opponents.
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Victor Madrigal-Borloz is a Costa Rican lawyer. Since 2018, he has served as the United Nations Independent Experton protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity . During his tenure at the U.N., Madrigal-Borloz has been noted for focusing his Human Rights Council mandate on investigating a broad and intersectional range of issues facing LGBT communities around the world, including conversion therapy, criminalization, socio-cultural exclusion, anti-trans rhetoric, and the outsized impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable LGBT and gender-diverse populations.
Francesca P. Albanese is an Italian international lawyer and academic. On 1 May 2022, she was appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories for a three-year term. She is the first woman to hold the position.
Tamana Zaryab Paryani is an Afghan journalist and women's rights activist known for her protests against Taliban rule in Afghanistan. She is widely recognised as a symbol of the women's struggle in Afghanistan. In December 2022, Tamana was named as one of BBC's 100 Women. She is a member of an Afghan women's rights activist group Seekers of Justice. She fled Afghanistan in August 2022 and now lives in Germany.
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Wahida Amiri is an Afghan librarian and women's rights activist. She was featured in the BBC 100 Women 2021 for her continued efforts protesting against the Taliban and their ban on women's education and right to work.
Siobhán Mullally is an United Kingdom-born Irish Professor of Law and the UN special rapporteur on human trafficking.
Claudia M. Flores is a Serbian-born American law Professor at Yale University. She is a member of the United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women and girls.
Nayera Kohistani is an Afghan women's rights activist. She lived through the first Taliban rule in her country. She was a protestor when they came to power again. She left the country in 2022 after being imprisoned and she is a prominent protestor against the "gender apartheid" and criminalisation of gender in Afghanistan.
References
- 1 2 "Dorothy Estrada-Tanck". Harvard Law School | Human Rights Program. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
- 1 2 "Dorothy Estrada-Tanck appointed Chair of United Nations Working Group". European University Institute. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
- ↑ Estrada-Tanck, Dorothy (2016). Human security and human rights under international law : the protections offered to persons confronting structural vulnerability. Hart Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5099-0238-5.
- ↑ "Current and former mandate holders". OHCHR. 1 May 2024. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
- ↑ "Experts: Taliban treatment of women may be "gender apartheid"". OHCHR story. July 2023.
- ↑ "States and companies must end arms transfers to Israel immediately or risk responsibility for human rights violations: UN experts". 20 June 2024. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
- ↑ "Nobel Peace Laureate, Malala Yousafzai, Speaks at IPI on Gender Apartheid". International Peace Institute. 8 March 2024. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
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