GENEVA: A team of UN experts suggested Friday that the Taliban's treatment of Afghan women and girls, including their exclusion from parks and gyms as well as schools and universities, could amount to a crime against humanity.
According to Richard Bennett, UN Special Envoy on Afghanistan, and nine other UN experts, the way women and girls are treated may qualify as "gender abuse" under the Rome Statute, including Afghanistan is one side.
Speaking in response to the assessment, Abdul Kahar Balkhi of the Taliban's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: "The current mass punishment of innocent Afghans by the United Nations in the name of women's rights and equality amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity."
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In a statement, UN experts said keeping women in their homes was "equivalent to imprisonment" and was likely to lead to higher rates of domestic violence and mental health issues. Experts cited the arrest this month of activist Zarifa Yacobi and four of her male colleagues.
According to experts, they are still being caught.
In August 2021, the Taliban overthrew the government supported by the West. According to their interpretation of Islamic law, they claim to respect the rights of women.
To move toward formal recognition of the Taliban government, Western governments have said the Taliban must change their position on women's rights, including their U-turn on signals they would open girls' high schools.
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Separately, a representative of the United Nations Human Rights Office demanded that the Taliban government in Afghanistan immediately stop using public codes.
According to Raveena Shamdasani, the office had records of several such incidents this month, including one where a man and a woman were given 39 punches for spending time alone with each other even though they were not married.
According to Balkhi, the Taliban government viewed the UN statement and other statements made by Western officials as "an insult to Islam and a violation of international principles".
