Taliban: 3 Years Later

When the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan three years ago, one of the first things they did was paint over the images of women on billboards and murals. Since then, women and girls themselves have been erased. Girls cannot go to high school, women are officially banned from working in most jobs, and movement outside the home is heavily restricted and often punished. Many of the women who defied these impositions have been tortured and detained. Others are in hiding. The flogging and stoning of women in public has resumed as a matter of policy.

Yet, the world looks away. There are dedicated journalists and human rights advocates who continue to report on Afghan women, girls, and minorities, but the horrors inflicted on them have long slipped off the front pages. Governments occasionally issue statements of concern but nothing more. It is only in moments like this, the third anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover, that people remember Afghanistan. For the rest of the year, Afghans are kept out of sight, quietly abandoned to their fate, as if nothing can be done.

But there is something that can be done: the Taliban can be held accountable. The militant group is responsible for some of the most serious breaches of international criminal law. Just as the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and five senior government and military officials, it could do the same with individual Taliban leaders. The ICC has the jurisdiction, as there is already an investigation on Afghanistan. The persecution of women and girls constitutes a crime against humanity—one of the most serious categories of crimes, along with genocide and war crimes. The Prosecutor can prioritise the investigation, gather evidence, and request arrest warrants.

The Taliban can also be brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the “World Court”. The ICJ decides cases that are brought between states. Very recently it has framed a case as per the appeal of South Africa. It is currently hearing important human rights-related cases, including torture, racial discrimination, and genocide. As the group in control of Afghanistan, the Taliban can be brought before the court to answer for its violations of the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the main treaty protecting women’s rights, which has been ratified by 189 countries. All it needs is for one country to bring the case. The problem is ‘Who will bell the cat?’

For the past three years, the international community has pursued a failed strategy of applying economic pressure on the one hand and seeking engagement on the other. Neither approach has worked in restraining the Taliban, and both have made the situation for Afghan women and girls worse. The withdrawal of international assistance and the imposition of sanctions has plunged the Afghan people deep into a humanitarian crisis, with more than 23 million in need of urgent assistance, most of them women and girls. And the talks with the Taliban have prioritised issues like regional security and narcotics, but never the rights of women and girls. There are observers who point to positives, saying there is now peace in a country that has not known it for 40 years. But for half the population, the war continues, and they are the targets.

Women’s rights in Afghanistan have never been a foreign-imposed project, as some claim, alien to the country. It is the women of Afghanistan who always fought for them, whether it was securing laws to protect women from violence under previous governments or whether it’s resisting the Taliban from exile, on the streets, and even from inside their homes.

[Contributed]

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 10, Sep 1 - 7, 2024