The leadership of the fundamentalist Sunni Taliban movement is instituting large-scale, systematic gender discrimination and violence against women and girls in Afghanistan, a UN team of 36 UN human rights experts warned on Monday.
“We are concerned about the ongoing and systematic efforts to exclude women from the social, economic and political spheres from one end of the country to the other” in Southeast Asia, “the panel said.
“Her concerns are even more acute” for women belonging to ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities, such as those of Khazars, Tajiks, Hindus and other communities whose differences or ease of identification make them even more vulnerable, “she added. .
Since seizing power in Afghanistan on August 15, the Taliban have imposed a series of restrictive measures on women and girls. Most women were barred from continuing to work. Taxi drivers have been instructed not to pick up women unless they are wearing a certain type of hijab. Women are afraid of retaliation if they leave home without being accompanied by a male relative, in the role of guardian.
These policies affect “women’s ability to work and earn a living, pushing them even deeper into poverty,” the panel warned. “Women who have households are even more affected, as their suffering is exacerbated by the humanitarian crisis” in the country.
“The Taliban continue to deprive women and girls of their right to education,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.
Institutions set up to help and protect vulnerable women and girls – the Ministry of Women, the Independent Human Rights Commission, shelters for abused women … – have been closed or occupied by Islamists.
Women and girls in Afghanistan have taken to the streets to protest against the measures against them continuously for the last five months, demanding that their rights to education, work and freedom be respected. Taliban fighters have repeatedly beaten, threatened or detained women who took part in such demonstrations.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
.
