KABUL – In the historic Loya Jirga assembly hall on Saturday, Taliban leaders, alongside other officials, commemorated the fifth anniversary of their resurgence to power. They heralded this milestone as a period that has ended decades of turmoil by bringing stability and peace back to Afghanistan.
Despite the celebratory tone, a senior United Nations official issued a stark reminder of the ongoing severe human rights challenges within the nation, notably pointing out the prohibition against educating girls beyond 12 years of age.
The Taliban’s capture of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, followed the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces, which ended a costly 20-year conflict. This exit triggered chaos across the country, particularly at Kabul airport, as thousands tried desperately to escape.
Shortly after assuming control, the Taliban reneged on prior promises by enacting strict bans on female education beyond sixth grade and later extended this to include a prohibition on women attending universities. These actions starkly contrast with initial assurances of allowing women access to education, jobs, and active roles in society.
Moreover, women in Afghanistan have faced increased restrictions under the Taliban’s rule, including being barred from public spaces such as gymnasiums and parks, prohibitions from participating in sports, and limitations on traveling long distances without a male chaperone.
At the Loya Jirga, high-ranking officials were joined by some foreign representatives and thousands of ordinary citizens for speeches marking what they said was Afghanistan’s liberation from American forces.
The Taliban government remains isolated internationally, with Russia being the only country to have recognized it formally.
“We pray to Almighty God to forever protect our homeland from occupation, aggression, wars, and insecurity, and to enable our people to enjoy peace, tranquility, and prosperity under the auspices of the Sharia-based government,” the Taliban government’s deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said during the ceremony.
There were no women present.
Celebrations were also held in provinces across Afghanistan, where Taliban flags and posters emblazoned with slogans in praise of the Taliban’s return to power were displayed along major roads and marketplaces.
In a video message, Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, said the country was undergoing a deep human rights crisis.
“While the era of war has ended, it’s questionable whether there’s real peace, and the human rights situation has steadily deteriorated, most dramatically for women and girls,” Bennett said. “My mandate has concluded that this system amounts to the crime against humanity of gender persecution.”
“The crisis extends well beyond gender discrimination, even beyond gender apartheid,” he continued. “Across Afghanistan we continue to document arbitrary arrests, torture and ill treatment, extrajudicial killings, corporal punishment, enforced disappearances, restrictions on freedom of expression, attacks on journalists and human rights defenders, persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, discrimination against LGBT plus persons, and the reduction of civic space.”
Bennett warned the international community against “normalizing” the Taliban’s policies, saying it would legitimize the discrimination and tell “victims their suffering is negotiable.”
In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi, deputy minister in the Taliban government for broadcasting at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said despite “challenges and difficulties” the administration has in the past five years delivered security, infrastructure and created jobs.
Farahi, when asked, did not address the issue of the education of girls and women but said “the level of investment made in universities surpasses anything seen in the past.”
The U.N. agency on education and culture, UNESCO, estimates that some 2.4 million girls have been excluded from secondary education.
The world body’s agency on women’s rights, U.N. Women, said this week that women and girls are facing the harshest restriction in the world and that the bans are damaging Afghanistan’s future, with the lack of teachers, doctors, nurses and midwives threatening the country’s social and economic foundations.
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Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.
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