Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has urged the Taliban to immediately revoke a new law introduced by the group’s leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. The law, Turk argues, seeks to turn women into “faceless and voiceless shadows.”
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Turk called on the Taliban to swiftly repeal the legislation. “This law reinforces policies aimed at the total erasure of women from public life,” he said. “It silences women, strips them of their individual autonomy, and attempts to render them into faceless, voiceless shadows.”
The senior U.N. official described the situation as “utterly intolerable.”
Earlier, the European Union also condemned the Taliban’s new law, calling on the group to end the “systematic violations” of the rights of Afghan women and girls. The EU stated that the decree undermines the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan and is unacceptable to the international community.
