[Mission Field News] Afghan Taliban Government Uses Judicial System as Weapon to Oppress Women

The Taliban government, which is ruling Afghanistan, is using laws and the judicial system to carry out oppression of women and girls “almost to the level of crimes against humanity,” an independent UN investigator in Afghanistan said on the 6th (local time).

In a report distributed at the UN General Assembly on the 6th, investigator Richard Bennett stated that the Taliban government, which came to power in 2021, abolished all provisions in the 2004 constitution and domestic laws that protected the rights of women and girls.

These included provisions that criminalized 22 types of acts such as sexual assault and rape against women, and forced child marriages, he said.

The Taliban government also dismissed all judges appointed under the previous U.S.-backed administration. Among them were about 270 female judges, all of whom were replaced by men who cooperate with the Taliban’s extreme interpretation of Islamic ideology.

These male judges have no judicial training and merely issue rulings according to the decrees handed down by the Taliban government.

Furthermore, the Taliban has taken over all judicial enforcement and investigative agencies, focusing systematically on persecuting and expelling Afghans who worked under the previous government.

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The Taliban has banned education for women and girls beyond the sixth grade of primary school, prohibited women from employment, and barred them from all public places such as parks, as well as from public facilities like gyms and beauty salons.

Women are prohibited from showing their bare faces or even speaking in public. As a result, the Taliban is not recognized as a government by any country except Russia and is completely isolated from Western nations.

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Because of this, women are seeking help and mediation from senior religious leaders and Islamic clerics, but even these figures often make rulings in favor of men, meaning that in reality there is little hope for women to be protected.

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Source: Newsis

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)

Heavenly Father, we hear the dreadful news that the Taliban government ruling Afghanistan is using laws and the judicial system to carry out oppression of women and girls almost to the level of crimes against humanity.

In a situation where even the provisions protecting the rights of women and girls have been abolished, and all judicial enforcement agencies are controlled so that cases related to divorce, child custody, and sexual violence cannot even be filed, Afghan women are seeking help and mediation from Islamic clerics — but even this does not provide a solution.

Lord, may all the evil deeds and schemes of the Taliban, who are using the judicial system as a weapon to torment Afghan women, be destroyed, and may a God-fearing government be established in Afghanistan so that Afghan women may soon live safe lives where they are protected.

Have mercy on the lives of Afghan women, who, like sheep without a shepherd, can find no hope or joy, and let them realize that Jesus is the only path of life for them.

May Afghan women come to Jesus, the path of life, and fully enjoy the fullness of joy and eternal pleasure that the world could never give.

Lord, may the Afghan church and Persian church that You have established weep with Afghan women in their pain, truly pray and serve for them, and proclaim the gospel, so that the Kingdom of God may come upon Afghanistan.

In this final era, when all nations suffer, may the Afghan people rise up as a people who carry the gospel of heaven that sets all nations free, wiping the tears of suffering souls like Jesus did, and proclaiming the Kingdom of God!