On the deteriorating situation of women in Afghanistan due to the recent adoption of the law on the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”

B100040/2024

Motion for a European Parliament resolution on the deteriorating situation of women in Afghanistan due to the recent adoption of the law on the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”

(2024/2803(RSP))

The European Parliament,

–having regard to Rule 150 of its Rules of Procedure,

–having regard to its previous resolutions on Afghanistan

A.whereas women in Afghanistan enjoyed a relative level of freedom until the Communist coup in 1978 and the subsequent Soviet invasion; whereas during the Afghan-Soviet war, extremist Islamism flourished with the rise of the Taliban;

B.whereas Afghanistan remains a deeply traditionalist country with highly restrictive cultural traditions, which find their basis within extremist Islam; whereas even before the Taliban retook power in the country in August 2021, many state-sanctioned rights were never fully implemented in practise;

C.whereas the situation of women in Afghanistan has catastrophically and rapidly deteriorated even further since the Taliban retook power and introduced the strict enforcement of Sharia law; whereas on 21 August 2024, the Taliban enacted a new morality law, the "Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice," which requires Afghan women and girls, to cover their bodies and faces entirely and forbids them from singing or reading aloud in public;

D.whereas since the 2021 Taliban takeover, women have been subjected to public executions and cruel punishments, such as flogging and stoning; whereas, over the last three years, unprecedented deterioration of women’s fundamental human rights, such as their right to work or to receive education after the 6th grade, have been banned; whereas many Afghan women have been cut off from basic access to health care and are banned from travelling long distances;

E.whereas the barbaric measures against women are a strict and direct application of Sharia law interpretation; whereas these practices are incompatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

F.whereas since 2021, approximately 100,000 Afghan nationals, predominantly male, have applied for refugee status in the EU every year; whereas asylum recognition rates for Afghans in the EU are around 50%;

1.Extends its deepest sympathy to the women of Afghanistan, who are victims of Sharia law;

2.Strongly condemns the severe backsliding of women’s and girls’ rights in the country, including the adoption of the new law on the "Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" in Afghanistan, which effectively erases women and girls from public life; calls for an end to the systematic violations of women's and girls’ rights in Afghanistan, including the persecution and violence committed against them;

3.Emphasizes that the continued migration from Afghanistan to Europe will lead to the continued importation of extremist Islamist ideologies and behaviours, further undermining the security of women and social cohesion in Europe; urges Member States to halt the illegal migration of primarily young adult males from Afghanistan to the EU ; urges an effective return and readmission of illegal migrants ;

4.Regrets that while the Commission has expressed support to Afghan women and girls, it has repeatedly funded campaigns featuring as well as promoting the hijab and funded organisations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood ;

5.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission, de facto Afghan authorities and relevant international institutions.