The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor announced on Thursday he had requested arrest warrants for two top Afghan Taliban officials for the repression of women.
Karim Khan said in a statement he asked judges to approve warrants for the group’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhunzada, and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, accusing the men of crimes against humanity for gender-based persecution.
“These applications recognize that Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban,” Khan said.
Since they took back control of the country in 2021, the Taliban have barred women from jobs, most public spaces, and education beyond sixth grade. Last year, Akhundzada banned buildings from having windows looking into places where a woman might sit or stand.
Nobody from the Taliban government was immediately available for comment. Human rights groups applauded the ICC move against the Taliban leadership.
“Their systematic violations of women and girls’ rights, including education bans, and the suppression of those speaking up for women’s rights, have accelerated with complete impunity. With no justice in sight in Afghanistan, the warrant requests offer an essential pathway to a measure of accountability,” Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
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