As the global community marked International Human Rights Day earlier this month, millions of Afghan women and girls remained trapped in their homes, cast out of their schools, work and public life by repressive Taliban policy.
Last year, in response to these then-already-ongoing human rights violations, the US government announced new sanctions against Taliban officials – but with another year gone, questions persist about whether such measures truly have teeth.
At the heart of this contradiction stands Fariduddin Mahmood, a powerful member of the Taliban’s leadership who played a key role in shutting the doors of schools and education centers to women and girls after the sixth grade. Though now officially sanctioned, Mahmood continues his role as head of the Afghanistan Academy of Sciences, actively enforcing these devastating educational bans.
The second individual, Khalid Hanafi, serves at the helm of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (MPVPV). Since August 2021, MPVPV members have committed serious human rights violations, including abductions, whippings, and beatings. They have also assaulted people protesting restrictions on women’s activities, particularly regarding access to education.
Sanctions are meant to be powerful tools that countries use to pressure others into changing their policies or behavior. These measures can include trade restrictions, financial penalties, asset freezes, travel bans, and other punitive actions. They are typically imposed in response to human rights violations, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, military aggression, or unfair trade practices.
However, despite the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan extending beyond two years without recognition from any government, and many Taliban leaders being on US Department of State and United Nations sanctions lists, these sanctions appear largely uncompelling. Taliban representatives continue to travel to neighboring countries and European nations, attending both formal and informal meetings.
Nazila Jamshidi, an expert in inclusive international development with a decade of experience in Afghanistan, explains this apparent contradiction: “It’s important to note that not all Taliban leaders are under travel sanctions; only 135 members of the Taliban officials are subject to such sanctions. Many mid-level officials who are not under sanctions may not seem significant individually, but collectively, they contribute to the functioning of the oppressive regime.”
Meanwhile, the Taliban continues to restrict women’s freedoms within Afghanistan:
– December 2021: Women were banned from traveling more than 72 kilometers without a close male relative
– March 2022: Airlines were ordered to stop women from boarding flights unless accompanied by a male relative
– August 2023: Female students with full scholarships were prevented from boarding planes to Dubai for university studies
One female student’s fearful testimony captures the impact: “Right now, we are in the airport but unfortunately the government did not allow us to fly to Dubai… they saw the student visa and the ticket, but did not allow us… some were barred from travelling despite being accompanied by mahram [a male guardian] … I do not know what to do. Please help us. We are so concerned.”
The Taliban has recently attempted to present a facade of normality through selective statistics. In November 2023, their Ministry of Interior claimed nearly 2,000 female employees. In December 2023, Qalandar Ebad, acting minister of public health, stated that 150,000 women work in the health sector. However, these women often work out of desperate necessity to survive the hunger crisis, and these numbers are inadequate for Afghanistan’s female population, half the country’s people.
UN experts, women’s rights activists, and scholars characterize the situation as gender apartheid. The Taliban’s systematic oppression of women’s rights serves to maintain their dominance through inhuman rules and restrictions.
As Jamshidi argues, “A broader application of travel sanctions to all members of the Taliban, regardless of their official rank, would be more effective in preventing them from representing their leaders on the global stage. This would help curtail their ability to propagate their acts and ideologies, ensuring a more comprehensive and impactful approach to international sanctions.”
If Taliban officials can travel freely despite sanctions, these measures lose their power to hold the regime accountable for gender persecution and apartheid. The United Nations Security Council and international community must take a firmer stance in sanctioning the Taliban regime and its officials to pressure them to respect human and women’s rights in Afghanistan. This is a crucial moment to stand with the Afghan people under oppression, remembering that while regimes change, the people endure.
The author is an anonymous Afghan legal scholar who cannot be identified publicly due to security concerns.
