By ANI special correspondent
KABUL: The lives of women and girls in Afghanistan are being devastated by the Taliban’s crackdown on their human rights, a London-based rights group said in its new report.
The report titled, Death in Slow Motion: Women and Girls Under Taliban Rule, reveals how women who peacefully protested against these oppressive rules have been threatened, arrested, detained, tortured, and forcibly disappeared. “Less than one year after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, their draconian policies are depriving millions of women and girls of their right to lead safe, free and fulfilling lives,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. “Taken together, these policies form a system of repression that discriminates against women and girls in almost every aspect of their lives. Every daily detail – whether they go to school, if and how they work, if and how they leave the house – is controlled and heavily restricted.”
Since they took control of the country in August 2021, the Taliban have violated women’s and girls’ rights to education, work and free movement and decimated the system of protection and support for those fleeing domestic violence. The group has also detained women and girls for minor violations of discriminatory rules and contributed to a surge in the rates of child, early and forced marriage in Afghanistan.
Callamard said the crackdown against Afghanistan’s female population is increasing day-by-day. “The international community must urgently demand that the Taliban respect and protect the rights of women and girls.”
The rights group is calling on the Taliban to implement major policy changes and measures to uphold the rights of women and girls.
“Governments and international organizations, including all UN member states and the UN Security Council, must urgently develop and implement a robust and coordinated strategy that pressures the Taliban to bring about these changes,” Amnesty International said in its report.
This report was released on Wednesday after an investigation was conducted from September 2021 to June 2022, and includes interviews with 90 Afghan women and 11 girls, aged between 14 and 74 years old, living in 20 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.
Since seizing control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have been the country’s de facto authorities. Despite initial public commitments to uphold the rights of women and girls, the Taliban introduced policies of systematic discrimination that violate their rights.
Women and girls across Afghanistan reacted to this crackdown with a wave of protests. In response, the Taliban targeted protesters with harassment and abuse, arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance, and physical and psychological torture. (ANI)