Resolution 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”

The European Parliament adopted by 565 votes to 8, with 43 abstentions, a resolution 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”.

The text adopted in plenary was tabled by the EPP, PfE and ECR groups.

The Taliban have implemented their extreme interpretation of Sharia and erased women from public life. Women are being forced into unwanted and early marriages and exposed to sexual violence as well as flogging and stoning to death.

Moreover, 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.

Parliament condemned the Taliban’s recent decree and interpretation and enforcement of Sharia law and denounced the erasure of women and girls from public life.  It called on the EU to support the recognition of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity.

Members commended the courage of Afghan women who fight for their rights.

Afghanistan’s de facto authorities are urged to:

- abolish their practices and laws discriminating against women;

- 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;

- be held accountable, particularly through the ICC investigation and the establishment of a UN Independent Investigative Mechanism.

It also condemned governments that enable the Taliban by normalising relations and called for the EU and the Member States to ensure Afghan women’s meaningful participation in international forums and negotiations.

Lastly, the resolution urged the EU and other donor states to increase humanitarian aid and funding to support basic needs and livelihoods and Afghan civil society.