The world came together last week to condemn the Taliban’s repressive policies against Afghanistan’s women and girls, making it clear that the one-time insurgent group’s actions are not just barbaric but criminal.
The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for a resolution that expressed “deep concern” over Afghanistan’s dire human rights situation. It urged the Taliban to halt the “grave, worsening, widespread and systematic oppression” of women and girls and respect international law.
This was followed by a recent International Criminal Court (ICC) announcement that it was issuing arrest warrants for Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani for crimes against humanity against women and girls since the group retook power in August 2021.
The decision by the pretrial chamber of the ICC to pursue Akhundzada and Haqqani was in response to a January request by prosecutor Karim Khan KC, who accused the Taliban of the severe deprivation of physical integrity and autonomy, freedom of movement and expression, education, private and family life and freedom of assembly of Afghan women and girls.
The Taliban’s abysmal treatment of women is well documented. The UN says the Taliban has “deliberately deprived” 14.4 million girls of education. It has also banned women from working in most sectors, including for international aid agencies. This has left a generation of women and girls without agency, and many families without their previous primary breadwinner.
The Taliban has also issued over 70 edicts directly targeting the rights and autonomy of women and girls, including enforcement of veil-wearing and bans on access to public parks and beauty parlors. The Taliban’s policies have been referred to as “gender apartheid” by UN experts and human rights organizations, and female suicide rates in Afghanistan have soared as a result.
The Taliban attempted to sidestep the ICC in February when it announced it was withdrawing from the Rome Statute. The Taliban reiterated that stance this week, saying it did not recognize the “so-called international court” while accusing the international community and its courts of double standards.
But despite what the Taliban thinks, the court still has jurisdiction in Afghanistan after the former government acceded to the Rome Statute in 2003. This means Akhundzada and Haqqani risk arrest if they leave the country.
It also opens the door for more warrants, including for Sheikh Mohammad Khalid, the head of the notorious Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice responsible for the cruel decrees against Afghan women and girls.
This is a significant blow to the Taliban’s quest for international legitimacy. The group thought it had a diplomatic victory earlier this month when it was formally recognized by Russia, but others will now seriously reconsider following suit because of obligations under the Rome Statute and pressure from civil society groups at home.
Taliban hopes of taking Afghanistan’s seat at the UN are also now unlikely, having already been denied four times since it returned to power in 2021. But when the Taliban accuses the world of hypocrisy, it has a point.
While the international community has targeted the Taliban for crimes against women, it has failed to hold Israel accountable for crimes against civilians in Gaza, including an estimated 28,000 women and girls killed since October 2023.
The Taliban highlighted these double standards on July 8, saying, “It is shameful to speak of human rights, justice, and international courts while genocide is being committed in Gaza, where hundreds of innocent women and children are killed daily before the eyes of these very courts.”
Many Western countries have also failed to uphold their obligations under the Rome Statute by failing to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was issued an arrest warrant by the ICC last year.
Earlier this month, Netanyahu flew over signatory states Greece, Italy and France on his way to Washington, and none intervened to arrest the Israeli PM or order the plane to avoid their airspace. [The US is not a signatory to the Rome Statute].
Others have gone further. In February, the US took the unprecedented step of sanctioning the ICC over its then-investigation of Israeli crimes in Gaza. The UK reportedly threatened to withdraw from the court if warrants were issued against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Australia claimed the ICC was wrongly drawing “equivalence” between Hamas and Israel, a clear attempt to undermine the investigation and protect Israel from accountability.
The double standards are obvious and add weight to claims that Western countries in particular pick and choose when international law applies, and thus undermine any attempt to hold the Taliban accountable. The group has no incentive to respect a system of law that is applied selectively and will instead stop listening to lectures and double down on its repressive policies on women.
In the immediate term, Akhundzada and Haqqani will simply avoid travel outside of Afghanistan, which they rarely do anyway. Any condemnation from the international community can be batted away by pointing to the horrifying number of Palestinian women and girls killed by Israeli bombs in Gaza, and the level of impunity Netanyahu enjoys in the US and Europe.
Scorned by the international community, the Taliban will instead rely increasingly on China and Russia for diplomatic support and economic deals. The group is also deepening ties with its neighbors Pakistan, India and Iran, and countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar. These countries are happy to prioritize Afghanistan’s strategic position in Asia over human rights, and none are signatories to the ICC.
Afghan women and girls deserve support, and the Taliban should be held accountable for their crimes. But rank double standards betray the very same people the international community wants and aims to help.
