After returning to power in 2020, the Taliban has been the centre of concentration of the Western powers, due to their implementation and interpretation of the stringent law they ruled with.
Though it promised to do away with some of these laws, the Taliban administration in Afghanistan, is gradually returning back to old interpretation and implementation of the sharia, catching the attention of the global body.
According to the UN, the Taliban government has further strengthened its restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan in recent months.
The Afghan Ministry of Health, has announced that, only male students who are willing to pursue a specialised medical studies, would be permitted to partake in exams, the UN mission in Afghanistan confirmed in their report.
The said restriction came after an embargo that prohibit female medical students from taking part in their graduating exams, was announced in February, alongside with ban on women attending Universities, issued last year.
The UN added that the Taliban administration has already began the implementation of these bans on women, which impedes the women’s freedom of movement and their right to be employed. UN claims, it has recorded many such instances, since the Taliban took over power in 2020.
Taliban announced that, humanitarian organizations that employs the services of Afghan women, should laid them off, sparking rages among Western powers and the UN. Also, three Afghan women were detained at the airport, for traveling without their male companion, the UN report revealed.
Moreover, a midwife was subjected to interrogation by Taliban officials for five hours, threatening her with assassination, if she continued to render her duties to an NGO she work for. However, two days after her detention and interrogations, the midwife resigned from her work.
“Two other NGOs had their licenses suspended by the de facto Department of Economy because of the presence of female employees in their offices,” it said.
Additionally, cases of physical violence against women, have also been reported. The report revealed that, women are subjected to severe beating by the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue Department. These beatings are meant to force women to vacate public parks.
Since their return to power, the Taliban has instituted series of sanctions on women, in most area in the public sector. Girls schools have been closed down, beyond sixth grade, and barred Afghan women from working in local and non-governmental organizations. UN employed Afghan-workers weren’t left out.
During the first Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, the group employed Corporal punishments as form of punishing those who offended the sharia. These were normally carried out in sports stadiums.
In December, last year, the administration carried its first public execution, after a man who was accused of killing someone, was shot dead with a riffle by the victims father. In June of this year, the Taliban also carried its second public execution, since returning to power.
The United Nations report in May expounded that, about 274 men, 58 women, and two boys have been subjected to public beating in the past six months.
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