RASC News Agency: In a high-profile special session on Afghanistan, the European Parliament has unequivocally condemned the Taliban’s treatment of women as a form of gender apartheid, describing the group’s policies as systematic, state-imposed oppression that violates the basic human rights of half the Afghanistani population. The session also assessed the compounding humanitarian crisis in eastern Afghanistan following a recent earthquake, which the Taliban’s regressive policies have exacerbated.
European lawmakers denounced the Taliban for transforming Afghanistan into the only country in the world where women and girls are denied the right to education, employment, and free expression, rendering daily life a perilous struggle for survival and dignity.
Green Party MEP Hannah Neumann stated bluntly:
“To be a woman in Afghanistan today is to live in an unending nightmare.”
Neumann emphasized that the Taliban’s restrictions are not rooted in Afghanistani culture, Islamic law, or tradition, but constitute a deliberate, institutionalized campaign to erase women from public and civic life. She further criticized the international community’s muted response, asserting:
“The world once pledged not to abandon Afghanistan. Yet today, it remains largely silent as Afghanistani women endure systematic deprivation and cruelty.”
Other MEPs underscored the necessity of recognizing the Taliban’s gender-based repression as a crime against humanity, calling for the adoption of international legal mechanisms to criminalize gender apartheid analogous to global measures taken against racial apartheid in South Africa.
Lawmakers also highlighted how Taliban restrictions hinder humanitarian aid, particularly in disaster zones. Female victims of the recent earthquake have been prevented from receiving assistance because Taliban policies prohibit male aid workers from interacting with women, amplifying the human toll of natural calamities.
Maria Terlak, member of the European People’s Party, condemned the Taliban for converting natural disasters into humanitarian catastrophes:
“The earthquake was not merely a natural tragedy; Taliban policies turned it into a man-made crisis. Their ban on women’s participation in relief operations exposes the regime’s true, oppressive nature.”
Critics also targeted covert diplomatic contacts between certain European states and the Taliban, warning that even unofficial engagement legitimizes a regime founded on fear and oppression.
Neumann further cautioned:
“No official should negotiate with the Taliban in silence. Every interaction, formal or informal, strengthens a tyrannical system. International cooperation with this regime must cease immediately.”
She also condemned the Taliban’s recent nationwide internet shutdown, describing it as “a deliberate effort to plunge an entire nation into digital darkness silencing dissent and severing Afghanistani citizens’ connection to the world.”
Green Party MEP Elisabeth Schilling stressed:
“The European Parliament must take a firm and unambiguous stance: under no circumstances will we meet with or recognize the Taliban as a legitimate authority.”
Members of the European Conservative bloc echoed these sentiments, criticizing the global community’s cowardly silence in the face of systematic human rights abuses. They urged Europe to refrain from normalizing engagement with the Taliban, emphasizing that such actions only reinforce the regime’s impunity.
Lawmakers additionally called for an immediate halt to deportations of Afghanistani asylum seekers from European countries, warning that returning refugees, particularly women, to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan constitutes a flagrant violation of international human rights law. Instead, they urged EU member states to expand protective measures and humanitarian pathways for Afghanistani women facing imminent danger.
The European Parliament is expected to adopt a comprehensive resolution on Afghanistan later this week. The resolution will likely include targeted sanctions against Taliban leaders, a suspension of forced repatriations, and an escalation of diplomatic and legal pressure on the regime in Kabul.
Human rights organizations have hailed the session as a pivotal step toward holding the Taliban accountable, but they warned that without coordinated global enforcement, the regime will continue to govern through fear, censorship, and the systematic erasure of women from public life, reducing Afghanistan to a de facto prison for its female population.
Experts underscore that the European Parliament’s strong stance is not merely symbolic; it represents a critical opportunity for the international community to establish legal and diplomatic mechanisms to confront gender apartheid and reinforce universal human rights in Afghanistan. The session also sent a clear warning that any international engagement with the Taliban must be contingent on demonstrable respect for women’s rights, education, and civic freedoms demands the regime has thus far failed to meet in its four-year rule of repression.
