The Right To Assemble In Afghanistan: A Delicate Balance

Since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Afghans have taken to the streets to protest against the regime. However, these protests have been met with violence from the Taliban, who have used firearms, water cannons, and stun guns to disperse crowds. The Taliban have also been accused of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and torture of protesters. Despite the risks, women have been at the forefront of these demonstrations, calling for social and political justice and demanding their legal, social, and political rights. The international community has largely failed to hold the Taliban accountable for these human rights violations, and there are concerns that the lack of action is complicit in the elimination of women's rights in Afghanistan.

Women's rights

Education

Under Taliban rule, women and girls are banned from attending secondary school and university. This restriction on access to education has been enforced by closing girls' schools and prohibiting online learning. The Taliban have also targeted female educators, with reports of thousands of women being dismissed from their jobs in education.

Employment

Women are barred from working in most sectors outside of healthcare and primary education. In April 2023, the Taliban extended the ban to include jobs with the UN, hindering the delivery of humanitarian assistance. The few women who are permitted to work face additional challenges, such as being forced to work from home or only being allowed to work with other women or elderly men.

Freedom of Movement

Women are not allowed to travel more than 70 kilometres (40 miles) without a close male relative as a chaperone. They are also restricted from entering public spaces such as parks and gyms.

Dress Code

The Taliban enforce strict dress codes for women, requiring them to wear full-body coverings (burqas) or abayas paired with niqabs, which leave only the eyes uncovered. Failure to comply results in punishment for their male guardians.

Public Life and Politics

Women are banned from participating in politics and speaking publicly. They are excluded from the judicial system and cannot serve as judges, prosecutors, or lawyers. There are currently no women in the Taliban's interim government, and the Ministry of Women's Affairs has been abolished.

Healthcare

The ban on women working in most sectors has impacted healthcare services, as women can only be treated by female physicians. The Taliban's restrictions on women's rights and freedoms have also led to a shortage of female doctors, further limiting access to healthcare for women.

Human Rights Abuses

The Taliban have been accused of committing human rights abuses against women, including arbitrary detention, torture, and other forms of ill-treatment. Women who protest against the Taliban's rule face violent responses, including the use of firearms, tear gas, and electric shocks.

Forced Marriage and Violence

The Taliban's policies have led to an increase in child and forced marriages, as well as gender-based violence and femicide. The institutional framework supporting survivors of gender-based violence has been dismantled, leaving women dependent on Sharia law and at risk of further abuse.

International Response

The international community has condemned the Taliban's violations of women's rights and called for mechanisms to protect these rights. However, the lack of recognition of the Taliban's government and the freezing of Afghanistan's assets have limited the effectiveness of these responses.

Freedom of expression

Afghanistan has a history of human rights violations, with the Taliban imposing severe restrictions on women's rights and freedom of expression. The Taliban's policies towards women have been termed ""gender apartheid", with women banned from most public spaces and employment. The country is the only one in the world to ban education for women over the age of eleven.

The Taliban's response to protests has been violent, with reports of live ammunition, batons, whips, and firearms being used to disperse crowds. The Taliban have also shut down media outlets and arrested journalists. In 2021, Afghanistan was the most dangerous country in the world to be a journalist, with over 15 journalists killed.

Despite these challenges, Afghan journalists and media staff remain dedicated to their work, often risking their lives to report the news and hold the powerful accountable. They have called on the government to ensure their security and protect freedom of expression.

The right to freedom of speech and print is advocated by the Afghan government and preserved in the Constitution. Article 34 of the Afghan Constitution allows freedom of speech and press, and the 2004 Media Law was signed by President Hamid Karzai in 2005. Additionally, the Afghan Constitution recognizes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which states that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

However, freedom of speech in Afghanistan has faced challenges, with journalists being physically hurt and attacked by insurgents and warring parties, including the Taliban. The country has also struggled with law enforcement and militancy, which pose barriers to freedom of expression.

The international community has a responsibility to hold the Taliban accountable for human rights violations and put pressure on the group to respect freedom of expression.

Freedom of religion

Afghanistan's constitution protects the religious freedom of religious minorities, with Article 2 stating that "followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of the law". However, in practice, the country's religious minorities face persecution and discrimination.

The Taliban's interpretation of Sharia law, or Islamic law, severely restricts the religious freedom of Afghanistan's minorities. The Taliban follow an ultraconservative Sunni interpretation of Islam, and while they have not stated that Shia or Sufi practices are forbidden, they have persecuted some religious leaders in the past as blasphemers. The Taliban's imposition of their narrow interpretation of Sunni Islam poses a grave threat to Afghans who interpret Islam differently, practise a different faith, or choose to have no faith at all.

The Taliban's harsh enforcement of their hardline version of Islam has resulted in the deaths of dozens of Hazaras, an ethnic minority that follows Shiite Islam. The Taliban has also failed to protect Hazaras from attacks by the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), a Taliban rival. The ISKP has carried out numerous suicide bombings and other armed attacks against Shia communities, particularly ethnic Hazaras. The Hazara community, which experienced persecution under previous Taliban rule, now fears more attacks and discrimination.

In addition to the persecution of Hazaras, the Taliban's restrictions on religious freedom have also led to the decline and near extinction of Afghanistan's already small Hindu and Sikh communities. Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan often experience interference by local authorities when trying to follow their religious rituals, such as cremation. There has also been illegal appropriation of Sikh-owned property by the state. While the Taliban has promised to protect Hindus and Sikhs, members of both communities have continued to leave the country, with only a little over 100 remaining.

Afghanistan's Christian community is also at risk, with Christians forced to practise their faith in secret or in hiding due to fear of persecution and societal discrimination. Christians are pressured by society and their families to remain secret, and they are subject to death threats from family members if they choose to convert from Islam. There are also reports of Christians being killed by the Taliban for leaving Islam.

The Baha'i community in Afghanistan has been forced to live in secret since 2007, when a fatwa was issued against them, declaring their faith blasphemous.

Human rights violations

Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, human rights violations have increased exponentially. The Taliban have imposed policies that severely restrict the rights of women and girls, banning them from most public spaces and employment, and prohibiting girls and women from attending secondary school and university. The Taliban have also carried out broad censorship and have detained and tortured journalists and activists.

The Taliban's restrictions on women's rights and freedoms are usually termed as gender apartheid. Women are banned from working outside the home, including jobs with the UN, and are banned from appearing in public alone or travelling more than 72km without a male chaperone. The Taliban have also forcibly closed beauty salons, impacting some 60,000 women-owned businesses, and banned women from participating in sports activities or visiting public parks.

In addition to women's rights, the Taliban continue to violate other human rights. Arbitrary arrests, torture, public punishment, injustice, and violence continue to be committed by the Taliban with zero accountability. The Taliban have also enforced public executions and corporal punishment such as stoning and flogging.

The Taliban have further restricted freedom of expression, with more than 80% of women journalists stopping work between August 2021 and August 2023 due to increasing restrictions. The Taliban have also forcibly closed media outlets, such as the Hamisha Bahar radio and television station in Nangarhar province, for running mixed-gender classes in journalism.

The Taliban have also targeted minority groups, such as Hazaras, who face persecution and eviction from their lands. Religious minorities, including Shia, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, Ahmadiyya, and Ismailis, continue to face marginalization, prejudice, and discrimination.

The Taliban have also committed unlawful attacks and killings. Civilians continue to face attacks across the country, and the Taliban have carried out mass extrajudicial executions of people associated with the former government and members of armed groups resisting them.

The situation in Afghanistan has been described as a "human rights crisis" that the world seems powerless to address.

Public executions and corporal punishment

Under the first Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, public corporal punishment and executions were commonly carried out in large venues such as sports stadiums. These punishments continued in areas under Taliban control during the 20 years of armed conflict that followed their initial fall from power. Since their return to power, the Taliban have implemented corporal punishment and the death penalty, with at least one public execution recorded in December 2022.

UNAMA documented 18 cases of corporal punishment, primarily lashings for so-called "moral crimes", between the Taliban takeover in August 2021 and November 2022. These included punishments for sex outside of marriage and for women and girls "running away" from their homes. Corporal punishment has increased since November 2022, when the Taliban leader called on judges to impose it whenever "Sharia [Islamic law] conditions are met". For example, 27 people were lashed in a sports stadium in Parwan on December 8.

In addition to lashings, other forms of corporal punishment, such as amputations, have also been reported. In May 2023, the UN expressed concern over the Taliban's continued use of public executions and corporal punishment. The de facto Supreme Court in Afghanistan sanctioned punishments such as stoning, flogging, and burying people under walls. These punishments have been widely condemned as contrary to international law and amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.

The Taliban's interpretation and application of Islamic law, or Sharia, have been widely criticized by the international community. Despite calls for the Taliban to respect human rights and freedoms, they have continued to impose restrictions on women and carry out public executions and corporal punishment.

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