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

European Parliament resolution of 19 September 2024 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 its previous resolutions on Afghanistan,

–having regard to Rules 150(5) and 136(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.whereas the Taliban have broken international norms, resumed repression, particularly of women and girls, ethnic minorities, human rights defenders and LGBTIQ+ people, and isolated Afghanistan, increasing hunger and poverty;

B.whereas the Taliban have implemented their extreme interpretation of Sharia and erased women from public life; whereas this includes barring women from work, access to healthcare without a male relative and education beyond the sixth grade, violently enforcing a dehumanising dress code, negating women’s presence in the public space and dismantling the support system for victims of violence; whereas restrictions on Afghan women’s rights hinder them from obtaining EU visas;

C.whereas a recent Taliban decree, the so-called law on the ‘Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice’, extends these restrictions by even requiring that female voices not be heard in public, thus further depriving Afghan women of their fundamental rights and freedoms, amounting to gender apartheid;

1.Condemns the Taliban’s recent decree and interpretation and enforcement of Sharia law, the erasure of women and girls from public life, their being forced into unwanted and early marriages and exposed to sexual violence, and the reintroduction of the public flogging and stoning to death of women; commends the courage of Afghan women who, despite life-threatening risks, fight for their rights, and stands in solidarity with them;

2.Urges Afghanistan’s de facto authorities to abolish their practices and laws discriminating against women; calls for the immediate restoration of women’s and girls’ full, equal, meaningful participation in public life;

3.Urges Afghanistan’s de facto authorities to release arbitrarily imprisoned women and girls and reopen the support system for victims of violence, ensuring victims can seek shelter, medical care, legal recourse and reparation;

4.Calls for Afghanistan’s de facto authorities to be held accountable, particularly through the ICC investigation and the establishment of a UN Independent Investigative Mechanism, and asks the VP/HR to initiate new EU sanctions against the Taliban;

5.Urges the EU and its Member States to adhere strictly to the Council’s five benchmarks, currently unfulfilled, and support the renewal of the UN Special Rapporteur’s mandate;

6.Condemns governments that enable the Taliban by normalising relations; calls for the EU and the Member States to ensure Afghan women’s meaningful participation in international forums and negotiations;

7.Calls for the EU to support the recognition of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity;

8.Urges the EU, the Member States and other donor states to increase humanitarian aid and funding to support basic needs and livelihoods and Afghan civil society, ensure flexible funding for NGOs and their female aid workers and grant humanitarian visas and promised visas for the international coalition’s Afghan former employees; stresses the need for the international community to assess the recent decree’s impact on humanitarian operations;

9.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the EU institutions, the Member States, the UN and the de facto Afghan authorities.