Taliban restrictions on Afghan women branded ‘crime against humanity’

A Taliban fighter stands guard as women wait to receive food rations distributed by a humanitarian aid group, in Kabul (AP)

Two human rights groups have attacked the severe restrictions imposed on women and girls by the Taliban in Afghanistan as gender-based persecution, which is a crime against humanity.

In a new report, Amnesty International and the International Commission for Jurists (ICJ) underlined how the Taliban crackdown on Afghan women’s rights, coupled with “imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment”, could constitute gender persecution under the International Criminal Court (ICC).