The UN Human Rights Council meeting was held on Monday, June 19, in Geneva. Richard Bennett, the special rapporteur for human rights of the organisation, Setara Mohammadi, Asghar Soroush, Parwanah Ebrahimkhel, Fereshta Abbasi, Shahzad Akbar, the chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission in exile, and Madina Mahboobi are among the people who have been invited to this meeting.
Richard Bennett said in this meeting that the Taliban removed women from society.
Referring to the orders of the Taliban, he said that they have deprived women of their right to work and education by imposing restrictions.
Madina Mahboobi said millions of women in Afghanistan are in a bad situation, and this raises concerns; the right to work and education has become a dream for them.
In another part of her speech, she asked the global community to engage with the Taliban.
This meeting was held while the protesting women of Afghanistan, on Saturday, June 17, wrote a letter of protest to the United Nations Human Rights Council and said that the Taliban have removed women from society with all their might in the past 22 months.
This group of protesting women added that the Taliban suppressed their political opponents and may have even killed them.
Additionally, this group of protesting women wrote that during the last two years, the Taliban have committed unforgivable crimes and made the lives of Afghanistani people hell.
These protesting women added that the Taliban have not only committed gender apartheid, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide but have also sheltered terrorist groups in Afghanistan.
Protesting women and girls asked the United Nations Human Rights Council to stand by the women of Afghanistan and act based on human rights values, the United Nations Charter, and other conventions that condemn discrimination and systematic exclusion of women and put more pressure on the Taliban.
Likewise, these protesting Afghanistani women asked the UN Security Council not to interact with the Taliban and not to recognise them.
The protesting women added that instead of inviting terrorist groups, the UN should invite Afghanistan’s pluralistic and pro-democracy forces to the conferences it holds for the promotion of democracy, human rights values, and gender equality.
Afghanistani women protestors wrote in this letter that the UN Security Council should do its utmost to bring about a comprehensive and inclusive government and always support human rights, ethnic rights [ethnic equality], freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the media, and not tolerate the Taliban crossing the UN lines.
Freshta Askari
