UN women's division urges international community to stand with Afghan girls and women

In a post on X, the UN Women's Division stated, "Listen to Afghan women and girls. Remember their words and call to action. Support their struggle. Invest in their resistance. We continue to stand with Afghan women & girls. Their fight is our global fight."

The organisation called for supporting the struggles of women, as the struggles of women in Afghanistan have always been suppressed and several protesting women, including Zhulia Parsi, Manizha Seddiqi, and Parisa Azada, have been kept in prison under the Taliban's rule, Khaama Press reported.

Amnesty International also criticised the international community's silence on human rights breaches, particularly the Taliban's violation of women's rights and called for the release of other women who have been detained.

Further, the restrictions imposed on women's education, work, and access to basic rights have resulted in women being excluded from public life in Afghanistan.

More than two years have passed since the Taliban banned girls from studying beyond sixth grade in Afghanistan and there is no sign of reopening the schools to girls studying above sixth grade. Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, they have issued several decrees that impose restrictions on women.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Deputy of the United Nations in Afghanistan said the Taliban in Afghanistan is sending Afghan women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence, Khaama Press reported.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has stated that gender-based violence against women and girls existed in Afghanistan even before the Taliban seized power. However, the social life of women has been limited, and family violence against women, particularly by their husbands, has increased after the Taliban took control of power in Afghanistan.

The UNAMA office added that before the re-establishment of the Taliban, there were 23 shelters for the protection of women survivors of gender-based violence in Afghanistan, none of which are now active. The Taliban even called protective shelters for women "safe houses" as originating from Western culture, saying that it is unnecessary.

Taliban-appointed officials said that they take commitments from caretakers of violence-affected women to not harm them. The UN report also said that women no longer work in the judiciary or law enforcement, and they are not allowed to deal with crimes of gender-based violence. Women are only allowed to attend work when called upon by their male supervisors.

"In cases where women survivors of violence had no male relatives or there were safety concerns, they were sent to prisons; similar to addicts and the homeless," the report stated.

Meanwhile, the 'Purple Saturday Movement', managed by a number of protesting women, has raised concern regarding the realities reflected in this report, according to the Khaama Press report.

"Imprisoning women who are themselves victims of gender-based violence is not only against Islam and Sharia, but in reality, it is a horrific form of mental, emotional, and physical abuse of women that must be stopped immediately," the statement of the movement read.

UNAMA stated further that the handling of gender-based violence complaints has been unclear and inconsistent since the Taliban took over power in August 2021, according to the Khaama report.

The Office of the Deputy of the United Nations also emphasised that women, who have experienced violence, are now afraid of seeking official justice for fear of arrest. (ANI)