KABUL: Nahla Haidar, the chair of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), has stated that the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan represents the most severe women’s rights crisis in the world. She emphasized that the Taliban cannot justify violence against women based on extremist interpretations of Sharia. Haidar noted that since taking control of Afghanistan, the Taliban have issued over 80 orders systematically violating women’s rights, a situation that could be described as “gender apartheid.” She stressed that the Taliban’s references to Sharia and “Afghan culture” cannot justify systematic discrimination against women and called for targeted sanctions and diplomatic pressure on the group. Haidar also referred to the recent earthquake in eastern Afghanistan, highlighting that women affected by the disaster have been sidelined from rescue operations simply because they are women.
