The International Criminal Court (ICC) is pursuing arrest warrants for Taliban officials accused of gender-based crimes as the group intensifies its crackdown on women's rights in Afghanistan. The ICC prosecutor's office announced on Thursday that there are grounds to believe that Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani are criminally responsible for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.
While the ICC lacks its own enforcement mechanism, it relies on signatory countries for arrests. Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, women and girls have faced severe restrictions, effectively erasing them from public life.
Initially portraying themselves as more moderate, the Taliban has reversed course by prohibiting women from attending universities, shutting down secondary schools and beauty salons, and barring women from working at NGOs, including the United Nations. A recent Taliban decree mandates that new buildings must not have windows through which women can be seen, with existing windows to be walled up or covered to prevent 'obscene acts.'
Human Rights Watch (HRW) welcomed the ICC's arrest warrants, emphasizing the need for accountability for the Taliban's systematic denial of women's rights in Afghanistan. HRW's Afghanistan researcher, Fereshta Abbasi, called for an expanded ICC investigation into other grave abuses, including those committed by international military forces and the Islamic State in Afghanistan.
While no country formally recognizes the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate rulers, nations like Russia, China, and Pakistan have established diplomatic relations with the group.
