Shahrazad Akbar, former Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), addressed the UN Security Council on the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan following the Taliban's return to power.
She highlighted a surge in gender apartheid, an increase in corporal punishment, and the suppression of women's and girls' rights and freedoms.
Akbar, a vocal advocate for women's rights, denounced the Taliban's assurances of respecting minority, women, and girls' rights as mere fabrications, evident to all observers. She underscored that her organisation, Rawadari, along with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), has documented numerous human rights infringements by the Taliban, including against journalists.
Among these violations, Akbar cited the detention of women's rights activists Manizha Sediqi and Parisa Azada by the Taliban. She raised concerns over the lack of accountability, noting that the Taliban have neither prosecuted nor investigated the perpetrators of crimes such as arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial killings of former government force members, and other serious human rights abuses.
Furthermore, Akbar revealed that the Taliban have systematically removed Shiite members from provincial and district Ulama Councils in Afghanistan.
