The top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said he would seek arrest warrants for senior leaders of the Taliban government in Afghanistan who persecuted women and girls.
Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani were criminally responsible for crimes against humanity on the grounds of gender.
ICC judges will now decide whether to issue an arrest warrant.
The ICC investigates and punishes those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and intervenes when national authorities are unable or unwilling to prosecute.
“The two men are responsible for the persecution of Afghan girls and women and those perceived by the Taliban as not conforming to its ideological expectations regarding gender identity or expression, as well as those perceived by the Taliban as allies,” Prime Minister Khan said in a statement. said. of girls and women.”
Opposition to the Taliban government “is being brutally repressed through crimes including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape, other sexual violence, enforced disappearances and other inhumane acts,” he added.
Persecution has been taking place across Afghanistan since at least August 15, 2021, the statement said.
Akhundzada became the Taliban’s top commander in 2016 and is currently the leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In the 1980s, he became involved with Islamist groups fighting the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan.
Haqqani was a close associate of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and served as a negotiator on the Taliban’s behalf during discussions with U.S. representatives in 2020.
The Taliban government has not yet commented on the ICC statement.
The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, 20 years after the regime was toppled in a U.S.-led invasion in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in New York, but the Taliban government has not been officially recognized by any other foreign power.
Since then, “moral laws” have caused women to lose dozens of rights in the country.
Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where women and girls do not have access to secondary and higher education. Approximately 1.5 million people are intentionally excluded from schooling.
The Taliban has repeatedly promised to re-enter the school once a number of issues are resolved, including ensuring the curriculum is ‘Islamic’. This hasn’t happened yet.
Hair salons are closed and women are banned from public parks, gyms and bathhouses.
The dress code means full body covering, and strict rules prohibit traveling without a male guardian or making eye contact with men unless you are related by blood or marriage.
In December Women were also prohibited from training as midwives and nurses.It effectively blocks the last route to further education in the country.
