Taliban took back control of the country in 2021 and have have barred women from jobs, most public spaces and education beyond sixth grade. File
| Photo Credit: AP

An Afghan women’s group on Friday (January 24, 2025) hailed a decision by the International Criminal Court to arrest Taliban leaders for their persecution of women.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced Thursday (January 23, 2025) he had requested arrest warrants for two top Taliban officials, including the leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

Since they took back control of the country in 2021, the Taliban have barred women from jobs, most public spaces and education beyond sixth grade.

In a statement, the Afghan Women’s Movement for Justice and Awareness celebrated the ICC decision and called it a “great historical achievement.”

“We consider this achievement a symbol of the strength and will of Afghan women and believe this step will start a new chapter of accountability and justice in the country,” the group said.

The Taliban government has yet to comment on the court’s move.

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An official in the former Western-backed administration warned the Taliban leadership was likely to exploit the decision for propaganda purposes by framing it as proof of their strong faith and resilience.

“They may tell their followers that their beliefs are so powerful they have provoked the collective opposition of global powers,” Mohammad Halim Fidai said on the X platform. Mr. Fidai was a Governor of four provinces before the takeover and now lives outside Afghanistan. “This decision could inadvertently serve as a badge of honor or credibility for them.”

Also Friday (January 24, 2025), the U.N. mission in Afghanistan said it was a “tragedy and travesty” that girls remain deprived of education.

“It has been 1,225 days — soon to be four years — since authorities imposed a ban that prevents girls above the age of 12 from attending school,” said the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva. “It is a travesty and tragedy that millions of Afghan girls have been stripped of their right to education.”

“Afghanistan is the only country in the world that explicitly bars women and girls from all levels of education,” said Ms. Otunbayeva.

Representational image only. File
| Photo Credit: AP

A senior Taliban person 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.

Sher Abbas Stanikzai, political deputy at the Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in a speech on Saturday (January 18, 2025) in southeastern Khost province.

He told an audience at a religious school ceremony there was no reason to deny education to women and girls, “just as there was no justification for it in the past and there shouldn’t be one at all.” The government has barred females from education after sixth grade. Last September, there were reports authorities had also stopped medical training and courses for women.

In Afghanistan, women and girls can only be treated by female doctors and health professionals. Authorities have yet to confirm the medical training ban.

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“We call on the leadership again to open the doors of education,” said Mr. Stanikzai in a video shared by his official account on the social platform X. “We are committing an injustice against 20 million people out of a population of 40 million, depriving them of all their rights. This is not in Islamic law, but our personal choice or nature.” Mr. Stanikzai was once the head of the Taliban team in talks that led to the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

It is not the first time he has said that women and girls deserve to have an education. He made similar remarks in September 2022, a year after schools closed for girls and months and before the introduction of a university ban.

But the latest comments marked his first call for a change in policy and a direct appeal to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. Ibraheem Bahiss, an analyst with Crisis Group’s South Asia programme, said Mr. Stanikzai had periodically made statements calling girls’ education a right of all Afghan women.

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“However, this latest statement seems to go further in the sense that he is publicly calling for a change in policy and questioned the legitimacy of the current approach,” Mr. Bahiss said.

In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, earlier this month, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders to challenge the Taliban on women and girls’ education.

She was speaking at a conference hosted by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Muslim World League. The United Nations has said recognition is almost impossible while bans on female education and employment remain in place and women can’t go out in public without a male guardian.

No country recognises the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, but countries such as Russia have been building ties with them. India has also been developing relations with Afghan authorities.

In Dubai earlier this month, a meeting between India’s top diplomat Vikram Mistri and Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi showed their deepening cooperation.