RASC News Agency: Oxford University has announced an upcoming forum aimed at shedding light on the systematic violations of women’s rights in Afghanistan. According to a statement from the university, the event, organized by the Women’s Rights Network (WRN), will be held on Saturday, December 7, as part of a series of vigils hosted by the institution to address critical global human rights issues. Heather Binning, the founder of WRN, condemned the Taliban’s recent decree banning women from healthcare institutions, describing it as a catastrophic escalation of gender-based oppression. She called on the UK government to abandon its silence regarding the Taliban’s atrocities and urged it to support prosecuting the group at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This forum comes amidst mounting global momentum to hold the Taliban accountable for their human rights violations. Countries such as Chile, Spain, Mexico, France, Luxembourg, and Costa Rica have already referred cases of abuses against Afghanistani women to the ICC. The past weeks have seen a growing chorus of nations and human rights organizations demanding international legal action against the Taliban. Over the past three years, the Taliban have issued a relentless series of draconian decrees targeting women, erasing their access to education, employment, and basic freedoms. Afghanistan now stands as the starkest example of gender-based oppression in modern history, with no other nation matching the scale or scope of its systematic subjugation of women.
While the Taliban claim to operate under the banner of Islam and the enforcement of Sharia law, their actions betray this narrative, showing a blatant disregard for both human and Islamic principles. Critics argue that their invocation of Islam serves only as a veneer for advancing their narrow ethnic and group interests, discarded without hesitation when it no longer aligns with their agenda. Decrees issued by an unseen and unaccountable leadership have become tools for dismantling rights, revealing the Taliban’s true priorities.
