Taliban treatment of women may amount to crime against humanity, says UN

The way the Taliban is treating Afghan women and girls by excluding them from public spaces such as parks and gyms, as well as stopping them from accessing schools and universities, may amount to a crime against humanity, UN experts said on Friday.

This treatment of women and girls may qualify as “gender persecution” under the Rome Statute which has been undersigned by Afghanistan, said Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on Afghanistan, and nine other UN experts.

Confining women to their homes is “tantamount to imprisonment”, the UN experts said in a statement, adding that keeping women inside will likely lead to more instances of domestic violence and mental health problems.