Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

UN Official: Taliban Breaking Promises


Mon 13 Sep 2021 | 05:31 PM
Ahmad El-Assasy

Nearly a month after the Taliban ousted the Afghan government and seized power in the country, the militant organisation is breaking commitments it made regarding its treatment of women and house-to-house searches, a UN official said, according to THE HILL.

According to Reuters, High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva that Afghanistan was in a "new and perilous phase" after the Taliban overran the country and took control last month amid the United States' troop withdrawal, raising concerns for women and inpiduals in ethnic and religious communities.

The UN official stated: “In contradiction to assurances that the Taliban would uphold women's rights, over the past three weeks, women have instead been progressively excluded from the public sphere.”

The high commissioner's remarks came after the Taliban unveiled its provisional Afghan government last week, which comprises a number of hardline officials from the Taliban's 1990s regime but no women.

Bachelet raised concern over the government's composition, pointing out the lack of women and the ethnic Pashtuns' significant influence.

The State Department has sounded a similar note, citing the lack of female leaders and the actions of some of those selected to prominent positions in the past.

The UN official also said that in some areas, girls older than 12 years old have been barred from attending school and told to stay at home, measures that echo the Taliban's harsh reign in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, when the US invaded the country and destroyed the regime.

Abdul Baqi Haqqani, Taliban's new Minister of Higher Education, stated on Sunday that women in Afghanistan will be allowed to study in gender-segregated university classes.

Haqqani further stated that the women will be subjected to a severe clothing code, which will include the wearing of hijabs.

According to Bachelet, the insurgent group has failed to follow through on promises to extend amnesty to ex-civil officials and security forces linked to the previous government, as well as to end house-to-house searches.