Tribunal Launched To Confront Taliban’s War On Afghan Women
(ANALYSIS) On July 31, a coalition of civil society organizations announced the launch of the People’s Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan, an initiative to address the impunity for the dire situation of women and girls in Afghanistan.
The People’s Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan will be part of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT), an international opinion tribunal competent to rule on any serious crime committed to the detriment of peoples and minorities.
The Tribunal is to add to the existing pathways to hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes and demand justice, raise the alarm about the normalization of the Taliban’s oppression of women and give women and girls their chance to be heard around the world.
The People’s Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan is a civil society response to the dire situation of women and girls since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021.
Ever since taking over Afghanistan, the Taliban have been placing restrictions on all aspects of women’s lives. From education to employment. From movement to participation in everyday activities. When the international community thought that it could not get any worse for women in Afghanistan, the Taliban kept coming up with new ways to impose more restrictions on women.
In August 2024, the Taliban published its law to “promote virtue and eliminate vice”, which sets up rules for everyday life and adds to the litany of restrictions on women. Article 13 of the law made it mandatory for a woman to veil her body at all times in public. A face covering was said to be essential. This was to avoid temptation and tempting others. Women are to cover themselves in front of non-Muslim males and females.
By virtue of the law, a woman’s voice is deemed intimate, and as such, women are not to be heard singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public. Women are not allowed to look at men they are not related to by blood or marriage, and vice versa.
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Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab is a human rights advocate, author and co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response. She’s authored the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 UN reports. She works on the topic of genocide and persecution of ethnic and religious minorities around the world. She is on X @EwelinaUO.