Nine countries, including France and UK, in a joint statement ahead of the UNSC meeting on Monday expressed support for an International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s request to issue arrest warrants for Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and the Taliban’s chief justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, citing systematic gender-based persecution in Afghanistan.

“I was beaten and harassed by the Taliban many times just for being gay,” said Azar, a 20-year-old gay man in Kabul, whose name is changed for his safety. In one of those incidents in mid-2023, Taliban members beat him in the street, then arrested and tortured him for days in a hidden, informal holding space.

The International Criminal Court Prosecutor announced it is seeking warrants against Taliban leaders for gender persecution committed against women, girls and–for the first time in its history–LGBTQI+ people. The Gender Persecution in Afghanistan Accountability Working Group (GPWG) is a dedicated platform towards achieving justice, visibility and accountability for gender-based crimes in Afghanistan. Read GPWG’s press release to learn what the warrants mean for Afghan feminist human rights defenders and allies. 

A senior Taliban figure has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.

Destitute Afghan women arrested for begging under draconian new Taliban laws have spoken of “brutal” rapes and beatings in detention.

Over the past few months, many women said they had been targeted by Taliban officials and detained under anti-begging laws passed this year. While in prison, they claim they were subjected to sexual abuse, torture and forced labour, and witnessed children being beaten and abused.

In September Australia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands formally called upon Afghanistan to cease what the countries say are violations of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This begins the process for the four countries to file a case with the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ). 

For most of the three years since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, their erasure of women’s rights appeared to be setting them on course for near-total isolation in the world.

Western and Islamic countries alike condemned the group’s most extreme strictures, particularly on girls’ education. Messages by Taliban officials that their government was eager to engage with the world were ignored. To this day, no country officially recognizes the Taliban as the lawful authorities in Afghanistan.

But in recent months, the political winds have begun to shift in the Taliban’s favor.

As we sit here today, Afghan women and girls are experiencing renewed gender persecution, including gender and sexual-based violence. The Taliban has issued more than 80 archaic edicts: Curtailing freedom of speech. Barring girls over the age of 12 from pursuing an education. Implementing so-called “morality laws” that effectively erase women from public life.

This institutional oppression is an attack on human rights and a threat to Afghanistan’s security, stability, and economy. And those who raise their voice in protest risk harassment, detention, and violence.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Friday that gender and nationality alone were sufficient for a country to grant asylum to women from Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban have sharply curtailed women’s rights.

Authorities in Austria refused refugee status to two Afghan women after they applied for asylum in 2015 and 2020. They challenged the refusal before the Austrian Supreme Administrative Court, which in turn requested a ruling from the ECJ, the top European Union court.

Feridun Sinirlioğlu, the United Nations’ special coordinator for Afghan affairs, said last week that “good progress had been made in Afghanistan, especially in the field of security,” and that “stability has been established,” at a meeting with Maulvi Abdul Salam Hanafi, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister for administrative affairs.

He said there is a “misunderstanding” between the international community and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which needs resolving. It is unclear what this “misunderstanding” entails. If gender apartheid is a misunderstanding, then it should be immediately recognized by the United Nations so the Taliban can be held accountable for their actions against Afghan women and girls.