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The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Tuesday for Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhunzada and Supreme Court head Abdul Hakim Haqqani on charges of persecuting women and girls since seizing power nearly four years ago, according to reporting from The Hague, Netherlands.
The warrants accuse the leaders of persecuting women and girls as well as “other persons nonconforming with the Taliban’s policy on gender, gender identity or expression; and on political grounds against persons perceived as ’allies of girls and women.’” The court’s prosecution office called the decision “an important vindication and acknowledgment of the rights of Afghan women and girls.”
Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the court’s authority, stating the decision reflected “open hostility and hatred toward the holy religion of Islam and Shariah law.” The warrants came hours after the United Nations adopted a resolution calling on the Taliban to reverse their oppression of women and girls.
Since returning to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures, including banning women from public places and girls from attending school beyond sixth grade. The court noted that the Taliban have “severely deprived, through decrees and edicts, girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion.”
READ MORE: ICC issues arrest warrants for Taliban leaders over persecution of women and girls
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