The measures taken by the Taliban against women in Afghanistan may constitute “a crime against humanity”, warned the G7 foreign ministers in a press release issued on Thursday.
The ministers, who met via video conference, called on the Taliban regime to reverse its decision to ban women from studying at university and ban girls from secondary education.
And they warn Kabul of possible consequences before the International Criminal Court in The Hague: “gender-based persecution may constitute a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute, to which Afghanistan is a state party”.
“Taliban policies aimed at erasing women from public life will have consequences for our countries’ relations with the Taliban,” they warn.
“The recent measures taken by the Taliban, which come on top of previous cumulative measures restricting the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan, are extremely concerning and appear to constitute a systematic policy,” they lament.
During a press briefing in Berlin with her Danish counterpart, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock drove home the point, calling the Taliban’s recent decisions against women’s education “a new step towards ‘cave age’.
But it is not the only one, she said, recalling that in recent months the Taliban had multiplied the restrictions on freedom imposed on women: “not only do they no longer have the right to study, but they no longer have the right to go to parks, leave their homes without a veil”.
The ban on Afghan women from going to university, decided by the Taliban regime, has aroused widespread criticism in the Western world. It has also been condemned by Turkey and Iran.