Taliban mark 5 years in power amid UN warning of grave rights crisis

Taliban leaders and officials gathered at Afghanistan's traditional Loya Jirga assembly hall on Saturday to celebrate five years since their return to power, touting stability after decades of upheaval. But a top United Nations official has warned of a grave human rights crisis in the country, where girls above the age of 12 are denied an education.

The Taliban seized power on August 15, 2021, as U.S. and other NATO troops withdrew following a costly two-decade war. The withdrawal triggered chaos at Kabul airport as crowds desperately tried to flee the country.

Soon after taking power, the Taliban administration imposed a ban on girls' education beyond the sixth grade and later barred women from higher education, despite earlier pledges to allow women access to education, employment and public participation. Women have also been banned from gyms, parks, taking part in sports, and travelling long distances without a male guardian.

At the Loya Jirga, high-ranking officials were joined by some foreign representatives and thousands of ordinary citizens for speeches marking what they called Afghanistan's liberation from American forces. Deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said: “We pray to Almighty God to forever protect our homeland from occupation, aggression, wars, and insecurity, and to enable our people to enjoy peace, tranquillity, and prosperity under the auspices of the Sharia-based government.” No women were present at the ceremony.

Celebrations were also held in provinces across Afghanistan, with Taliban flags and posters praising the return to power displayed along major roads and marketplaces.

In a video message, Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, said the country is undergoing a deep human rights crisis. “While the era of war has ended, it's questionable whether there's real peace, and the human rights situation has steadily deteriorated, most dramatically for women and girls,” he said. “My mandate has concluded that this system amounts to the crime against humanity of gender persecution.”

He added: “The crisis extends well beyond gender discrimination, even beyond gender apartheid. Across Afghanistan we continue to document arbitrary arrests, torture and ill treatment, extrajudicial killings, corporal punishment, enforced disappearances, restrictions on freedom of expression, attacks on journalists and human rights defenders, persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, discrimination against LGBT plus persons, and the reduction of civic space.”

Bennett warned the international community against “normalising” the Taliban's policies, saying it would legitimise discrimination and tell “victims their suffering is negotiable.”

The Taliban government remains internationally isolated, with Russia being the only country to have formally recognised it. In an interview with The Associated Press, Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi, deputy minister for broadcasting at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said the administration has delivered security, infrastructure and jobs over the past five years. When asked about girls' education, he did not directly address the issue but said, “The level of investment made in universities surpasses anything seen in the past.”

UNESCO estimates that some 2.4 million girls have been excluded from secondary education. UN Women said this week that women and girls face the harshest restrictions in the world, and the bans are damaging Afghanistan's future, with a lack of teachers, doctors, nurses and midwives threatening the country's social and economic foundations.