Taliban's New “Virtue Law” Exacerbated Afghan Women's Mental Health Problems, Says UN

The Russian official said that dialogue with the Taliban is important because the group is in power in Afghanistan. The statement, published on Thursday (October 10), read that a delegation from the Council of the Russian Federation visited Tajikistan. It is not yet clear whether the delegation will discuss Afghanistan during its visit to Tajikistan.

Russia has close relations with the Taliban, but Tajikistan has repeatedly warned about the current situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule over the past three years.

Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Security Service of the Russian Federation, had previously said that the Taliban was cooperating with Russia in the fight against ISIS-K.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also announced in July 2023 that Moscow sees the Taliban as an ally in the fight against terrorism.

Despite repeated requests from human rights groups, the council did not establish a mechanism to hold the Taliban accountable for human rights violations, she said.

In an op-ed, Power wrote that the Human Rights Council missed the opportunity to ensure justice and address serious abuses in Afghanistan. She said that the resolution could pave the way for the establishment of a mechanism to hold the Taliban accountable.

"Despite repeated calls from human rights groups, this resolution does not create a mechanism to respond to the Taliban's severe abuses in Afghanistan, including the group's systematic oppression of Afghan women and girls," Power wrote.

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday adopted a resolution condemning the widespread violations of human rights, especially the rights of women and girls, in Afghanistan and emphasising on the need for accountability and protection for minorities and vulnerable groups.

The resolution also expressed concern about the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan, in particular the continuing systematic violations of the rights of women and girls, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, forced displacement, ill-treatment of prisoners and collective punishment.

In a new resolution, the Human Rights Council extended the mandate of UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett and asked him to submit a report on the Taliban's "Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice" in the next session.

Human Rights Watch's criticism of the Human Rights Council resolution comes as four Western countries, including Germany and Canada, have threatened to sue the Taliban at the International Court of Justice for widespread violations of women's rights.

They hope that the court will force the Taliban to abide by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is also investigating human rights violations in Afghanistan, which could lead to the arrest of Taliban officials accused of human rights abuses.

The organisation said that the policewomen of the former government are in hiding after they received threats from the Taliban.

The report, titled "Dual Betrayal: Past and Present Abuses of Afghan Policewomen," said that the former government's female officials were threatened by Taliban officials.

According to the report, the Taliban's threats have also increased the risks to these women from their families, who were opposed to their presence in the ranks of the police forces since the beginning.

Human Rights Watch said that the threats have also caused many former female police officers to live in hiding in Afghanistan for fear of being identified.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 24 women from the former government's police forces for this report. Ten of these women were interviewed in person, with nine people remotely in five provinces of Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch also heard the accounts of five women who are now in the United States, Sweden, Italy, Iran, and Pakistan.

According to the report, female police members of the former Afghan government receive threatening phone calls from the Taliban and are asked to go to the group's offices for interrogation.

The women have also received warnings of uncertain consequences for working with the former government's police forces.

Human Rights Watch has said that several female officials of the former government have been killed by relatives who believed that these women had “demeaned the reputation" of their families. According to the report, the Taliban did not conduct a credible investigation into the deaths of these women.

The interviewees also said that the Taliban violently raided their homes for searches, attacked the men of the family, and destroyed the property.

Human Rights Watch said in its report that female police officers were also subjected to "sexual harassment and rape" by their male colleagues during their tenure in the previous government.

The report added that the previous government officials were never held accountable for their actions towards female police officers.

According to the report, a number of female police officers of the former government said that they were repeatedly subjected to "sexual harassment, rape and other forms of sexual violence" during their work.

They also said that they were pressured by superiors to "have sex in exchange for promotion or to avoid being fired".

Human Rights Watch said that since at least 2013, cases of abuse of female police officers under the previous government have been known among countries that support these forces.

In its report, Human Rights Watch wrote that many female members of the former government have fled to neighbouring countries such as Iran or Pakistan or are trying to obtain asylum in some other countries.

The women said that they were suffering from the long-term psychological effects of abuse they had experienced in the past but had not been able to receive adequate psychological support.

The report said that the female police officials of the former Afghan government were "betrayed" in two ways: first, by the previous Afghan government, which allowed serious sexual abuses against them to continue unaddressed, and second, by countries that ignored these abuses and also denied asylum or resettlement to female police officers.

Countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan, as well as the European Union, which supported the training and employment of these women, must now prioritise their asylum and resettlement applications, Human Rights Watch said.

Meanwhile, sources told Afghanistan International that Western countries have rejected the asylum applications of many female police officials of the former government because they are "military". These women are currently living in a state of uncertainty in third countries such as Pakistan.

Human Rights Watch also called on the Taliban to stop harassing female police officers of the former Afghan government and launch credible investigations into the matter.

The former government's female police officials lost their jobs after the Taliban takeover and are now facing economic challenges to find alternative income, the organisation said.

According to the report, the Taliban government has called a small number of these women to work to inspect women at the group's checkpoints as well as guard female prisoners.

"The governments that funded the training and employment of women in the Afghan police force should also put pressure on the Taliban to end all abuses against women and girls," said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Bošković met Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban's Minister of Refugees and Repatriation, in Kabul on Wednesday.

The Taliban's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation released uncensored footage of the meeting, but the Persian section of the Bakhtar news agency hid the images of the EU chargé d'affaires.

The Pashto section of BNA also published the news of this meeting, but with the difference that instead of a joint photo of Haqqani and Bošković, it only published a photo of the Taliban's Minister of Refugees.

The European Union recently nominated Bosković as its representative in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, she spoke with the Taliban's Minister of Refugees about the deportation of Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan.

According to the Taliban's Law on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, women's faces and voices are prohibited in public places, and women must leave their homes with a mahram.

The Danish Migration Agency has said that Afghans with residence permits must have passports.

The Danish government's move means that Afghan citizens in the country will have to go to an office under the supervision of the Taliban to get a new passport.

It has been said that Afghans can only get a foreign passport if they prove that they cannot get a new one.

According to local media reports, if Afghans need to return to Afghanistan to get a new passport, the Migration Agency agrees.

In August this year, the Taliban's Foreign Ministry called on Afghans and citizens living in Europe who want to receive consular services to refer to the group's missions in Europe. The ministry mentioned its aligned missions in Spain, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Munich, Germany.