RASC News Agency: On the fourth day of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), the primary focus turned to the systematic and structural repression of women in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan described by speakers as “gender apartheid.” This term refers to an organized system in which the law is deliberately used as a tool to strip women and girls of their most basic human rights.
The session presented a documented and deeply alarming picture of the deliberate dismantling of Afghanistan’s judicial institutions by the Taliban. This process has not only led to the complete exclusion of women from the justice system but, according to experts, has entrenched a repressive structure based on gender discrimination one whose legal and moral legitimacy is widely questioned.
Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, emphasized that the Taliban have systematically eliminated all pillars of the country’s judicial system, to the extent that no female judges, lawyers, or prosecutors remain in Afghanistan today. He warned that this situation constitutes not only a grave violation of human rights but also a clear example of the “weaponization of law” to enforce control over women, girls, and even non-Pashtun ethnic groups.
In this context, the Taliban’s adoption of a new penal code on January 1, 2026 reportedly allowing domestic violence against women implicitly was sharply criticized as a clear instance of institutionalizing violence within a legal framework. Observers argue that such measures highlight a profound disconnect between the Taliban’s system and fundamental human rights principles, as well as credible interpretations of Islamic law.
Zarqa Yaftali, director of the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation, stated that Afghanistan’s legal institutions now exist “in name only,” having been transformed into instruments of control by the Taliban.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International representative Metra Mehran reported that the Taliban have issued more than 200 restrictive decrees targeting women policies that collectively indicate a deliberate project to remove women entirely from social, political, and economic life. She stressed:
“This is neither religion nor culture; it is a systematic structure for the oppression of women.”
Similarly, Hanifa Girowal argued that what the Taliban present as a “legal system” does not align even with Sharia standards, resembling instead a command-driven and discriminatory system.
The session also highlighted the December 2024 ban on medical education for women a decision that not only violates women’s educational rights but also poses a serious threat to Afghanistan’s healthcare system in the long term.
International representatives, including Katerina Patsougianni, called on the Taliban to uphold their obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) commitments the group has effectively ignored.
Speakers emphasized the urgent need to establish an independent investigative mechanism to examine systematic human rights violations in Afghanistan one capable of holding the Taliban accountable for their actions.
They warned that Afghanistan represents an extreme yet real example of troubling global trends in women’s rights. If left unaddressed, such developments could lead to a broader rollback of decades of progress.
A report by West Sacramento Today concludes that Taliban policies are not merely a domestic crisis but a serious challenge to the international human rights system. Without effective global pressure, the continuation of these policies risks entrenching one of the most extreme forms of gender-based discrimination in the modern world accurately described by experts as “gender apartheid.”
