Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have “weaponized” the legal and judicial system to oppress women and girls in what amounts to “crimes against humanity,” the independent U.N. investigator on human rights in the country said.
Richard Bennett said in a report to the U.N. General Assembly circulated Wednesday that after seizing power in 2021 the Taliban suspended the 2004 constitution and laws protecting the rights of women and girls. These include a landmark law that criminalized 22 forms of violence against women, including rape and child and forced marriage.
The Taliban dismissed all judges under the previous U.S.-backed government, including approximately 270 women, replacing them with men who share their extreme Islamic views, lack legal training and hand down decisions based on edicts issued by the Taliban, he said.
In addition, he noted that the Taliban have assumed full control over law enforcement and investigative agencies, systematically purging Afghans who worked for the previous government.
Bennett, who was appointed by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, focused on access to justice and protection for women and girls in his report. He said he held meetings, focus-group discussions and one-on-one interviews with more that 110 Afghans inside and outside the country. He did so remotely because the Taliban have refused to grant him a visa to travel to Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, their crackdown on women and girls has been widely reported and globally denounced.
Taliban leaders have barred education for women and girls beyond sixth grade, banned most employment, and prohibited women from many public spaces, including parks, gyms and hairdressers. New laws ban women’s voices and bare faces outside the home.
The Taliban remain isolated from the West because of their restrictions on women and girls and have only been recognized by Russia.
Bennett said the Taliban did not respond to an advance copy of the report and a request for information about their efforts to ensure access to justice and protection for women and girls.
The Taliban defend their approach to justice by claiming they are implementing Islamic sharia law, but Islamic scholars and others have said their interpretation is unparalleled in other Muslim-majority countries and does not adhere to Islamic teachings. They say protecting the legal rights of women is a priority.
Bennett said, however, that women have virtually no rights.
“Today, there are no women judges or prosecutors and no officially registered female lawyers, leaving women and girls with fewer safe channels to report abuse or seek redress,” he wrote. “Coupled with a lack of female officials in the police and other institutions, the result is widespread underreporting of violence and discrimination against women and girls.”
Bennett said access to justice for girls “is further undermined by the dismantling of key legal safeguards and institutions protecting the rights of children,” including juvenile courts and juvenile rehabilitation centers.
The Taliban requirement that a woman must be accompanied by a male relative also creates barriers to filing complaints and attending court proceedings, he said, and disproportionately affects widows, women who are the heads of their households, the displaced and disabled.
“Women who engage with the Taliban court system — whether as victims seeking redress, to resolve family issues, to obtain official documents or as alleged offenders — face a hostile environment,” Bennett said. “Courts often reject complaints made by women and are especially reluctant to accept cases relating to divorce, child custody and gender-based violence.”
Facing these obstacles, Bennett said, women increasingly turn to traditional and informal justice mechanisms, including formal jirgas and shuras — community councils of elders — and informal mediation by religious leaders, community elders or family. But these are all male-dominated and raise “serious concerns about the rights of women and girls,” he said.
He said international forums offer the best hope for justice. He pointed to the International Criminal Court’s request on Jan. 23 for arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders accused of crimes against humanity for persecution “on gender grounds.” And he urged all countries to support efforts to bring Afghanistan before the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s highest tribunal, for violating the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
