Kabul: According to reports in the media, a panel of UN human rights experts has warned against the Taliban's attempts to "steadily eliminate women and girls from public life."

According to reports, large-scale and systematic gender-based discrimination and violence against women and girls has been occurring since the Taliban took over the country last August. "These rules, taken together, amount to a collective punishment of women and girls, based on gender-based bias and harmful behaviours," the experts said.

"Today, we are witnessing an attempt in Afghanistan to gradually eliminate women and girls from public life, including institutions and processes that were previously established to support and protect the most vulnerable women and girls." Women and girls in Afghanistan are being driven out of public life, according to experts.

"We are concerned about persistent and systematic initiatives across the country to exclude women from social, economic, and political realms." Human rights experts also expressed concern about the risk of women and girls being exploited, such as trafficking for the purposes of child and forced marriage, sexual exploitation, and forced labour.

According to experts, policies that are being implemented to exclude women include prohibiting women from returning to their jobs, requiring a male relative to accompany them in public spaces, prohibiting women from using public transportation on their own, and denying girls secondary and tertiary education.

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