TWO rights groups have slammed the severe restrictions imposed on women and girls by the Taliban in Afghanistan as gender-based persecution and a crime against humanity.

In a report published, Amnesty International and the International Commission for Jurists (ICJ), underscored how the Taliban crackdown on Afghan women’s rights, coupled with “imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment,” could constitute gender persecution under the International Criminal Court.

The report by Amnesty and ICJ, “The Taliban’s war on women: The crime against humanity of gender persecution in Afghanistan,” cited the ICC statute, which lists gender-based persecution as a crime against humanity.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and Nato troops were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from the country after two decades of war.

Despite initial promises of a more moderate rule, the Taliban started to enforce restrictions on women and girls soon after its takeover, barring them from public spaces and most jobs, and banning education for girls beyond the sixth grade. 

The harsh edicts prompted an international outcry against the already ostracised Taliban, whose administration has not been officially recognised by the United Nations and the international community.

In the report, Santiago A Canton, the ICJ secretary general, said the Taliban’s actions are of such “magnitude, gravity and of such a systematic nature” that they qualify “as a crime against humanity of gender persecution.”

Both organisations called on the International Criminal Court to include this crime in their ongoing investigation into what is happening in Afghanistan and take legal action. 

The report also accused the Taliban of targeting women and girls who have taken part in peaceful protests through detention, forced disappearance and torture in custody. 

The Taliban have also forced them to sign “confessions,” or “agreements” not to protest again, the report said.

Amnesty’s secretary general Agnes Callamard said what is happening in Afghanistan was “a war against women — international crimes that are organised, widespread and systematic.”

Ms Callamard called for the international community to dismantle “this system of gender oppression and persecution.”

Amnesty also documented cases of women and girls being forcibly married to members of the Taliban, as well as attempts to force them into such marriages. The report said those who refused were “subjected to abduction, intimidation, threats and torture.”

There has yet to be a response to the report from the Taliban.