The ministers, who met by video conference, called on the Taliban regime to reverse its decision to ban women from studying at university and ban girls from secondary education.
And they warn Kabul of the possible consequences before the International Criminal Court in The Hague: “persecution of gender can constitute a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute, to which Afghanistan is a party.”
“Taliban policies aimed at wiping women out of public life will have consequences for our countries’ relations with the Taliban,” they warn.
“The recent measures taken by the Taliban, which come on top of previous cumulative measures limiting the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan, are extremely concerning and appear to constitute a systematic policy,” they complain.
During a press conference in Berlin with her Danish counterpart, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock clarified the point, calling the recent Taliban decisions against women’s education “a new step towards the cave age”.
But she is not the only one, she said, recalling that in recent months the Taliban had multiplied the restrictions on freedom imposed on women: “not only do they no longer have the right to study, but they no longer have the right to go to parks, they leave the their houses without a veil”.
The ban on Afghan women from entering university by the Taliban regime has attracted widespread criticism in the Western world. It was also condemned by Turkey and Iran.
