RASC News Agency: The Women’s Movement “Window of Hope” has hailed the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor for requesting the arrest of Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the head of the group’s Supreme Court. In a statement issued on Friday, January 24, the movement called for the prosecution of all Taliban leaders, emphasizing that Afghanistani women have endured nearly four years of violence, systemic discrimination, and gender apartheid under Taliban rule.
The statement declared, “Since assuming control of Afghanistan, the leader of this terrorist organization has issued over a hundred executive decrees aimed explicitly at erasing women from the public sphere.” It further highlighted that the Taliban’s so-called “Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” has relentlessly targeted the private lives of women. The movement also underscored the devastating impact of the Taliban’s misogynistic policies, citing a sharp increase in suicide rates and forced marriages of underage girls. It described the ICC’s arrest warrant for these Taliban leaders as a landmark achievement in Afghanistani women’s ongoing struggle for justice.
Moreover, the “Window of Hope” called upon the ICC to extend its efforts to prosecute all Taliban leaders, including the ministers of higher education, education, and the so-called ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice. It concluded by affirming that the Afghanistani people are impatiently awaiting justice. The ICC’s move to pursue arrest warrants for the Taliban’s leader and chief justice has been widely praised by Afghanistani citizens, human rights advocates, civil society organizations, anti-Taliban resistance fronts, Afghanistani politicians, international human rights bodies, and the United Nations.
