(Copenhagen) Denmark decided Monday to systematically grant asylum to women and girls from Afghanistan because of their gender, while they experience a sharp decline in their rights since the return of the Taliban to power in the country.
“The decision is based on information about the continuing deterioration of living conditions for women and girls in Afghanistan,” the Danish Refugee Appeal Board said in a statement, citing a report by the agency. recently published European Asylum.
“This report indicates that the situation of a number of groups of people in Afghanistan, including women and girls, is such as to constitute persecution within the meaning of the Refugee Convention,” she continued.
According to the Danish Refugee Appeal Board, five outstanding cases involving Afghan women will be granted asylum under the new decision.
The authority will also re-examine the cases concerning Afghan women to whom it refused asylum after the Taliban came to power with a view to granting a residence permit to the persons concerned under the new decision (about ten cases).
It will also review all the cases concerning male Afghan nationals (approximately thirty cases) to whom it has refused asylum since the same date.
Since their return to power in August 2021, the Taliban have gradually eroded the freedoms won by women over the past twenty years, since the fall of their previous regime in 2001.
In addition to being denied the right to study, women are also banned from most government jobs.
They are not allowed to travel without being accompanied by a male relative and must wear a burqa or hijab when leaving their homes.
At the end of December, the Taliban authorities also ordered local and foreign NGOs not to employ any more women after “serious complaints” about their way of dressing, four days after a ban on studying at university for the same reasons .