While Taliban leaders mark 5 years in power in Afghanistan, a UN official warns of a rights crisis

Afghanistan's Taliban leaders gathered at the traditional Loya Jirga assembly hall on Saturday to commemorate the fifth anniversary of their rule. They claimed to have ushered in stability and an end to conflict after years of turmoil. A United Nations official expressed concern over a severe human rights crisis in the country, where girls over 12 are barred from education.

The Taliban took control on August 15, 2021, following the U.S. and NATO troops' withdrawal from a long and costly war. The U.S. withdrawal caused chaos at Kabul airport as people rushed to flee. The Taliban quickly banned girls' education beyond the sixth grade and later revoked higher education for women, despite initial commitments to allow women education, employment, and public participation.

Women have been barred from public spaces, sports, and traveling without a male guardian. At the ceremony, the Taliban's deputy spokesman vowed to protect the nation from aggression and insecurity under Sharia-based governance. The U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, highlighted that while the war had ended, the human rights situation had worsened, particularly for women and girls.

Bennett labeled the situation as a crime against humanity of gender persecution. Arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings, and other abuses continue to be documented in Afghanistan, alongside restrictions on freedom of expression, attacks on journalists, persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, and the chilling of civic space.

The U.N. agencies on education and women's rights warn that an estimated 2.4 million girls are denied secondary education, and the bans on women and girls are severely damaging Afghanistan's future.