Taliban administration dismisses UN report on women in Afghanistan as propaganda

By Alperen Aktas

ISTANBUL (AA) – The interim Taliban administration on Tuesday slammed UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan Richard Bennett for his latest report on the situation of women and girls in the country, calling it propaganda that did not reflect reality.

“The United Nations and some Western Institutions and Governments are spreading propaganda against the Islamic Emirate,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.

Describing Bennett's report as "propaganda that does not reflect reality," the Taliban official on Twitter said, “Islamic laws are under implementation in Afghanistan, objecting to them is a problem with Islam.”

The UN special rapporteur on Afghanistan on Monday expressed grave concerns over the "systematic and institutionalized discrimination" faced by women and girls under Taliban rule, calling it gender "apartheid."

"Grave, systematic and institutionalized discrimination against women and girls is at the heart of Taliban ideology and rule, which also gives rise to concerns that they may be responsible for gender apartheid," Bennett told the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"We have pointed to the need for more exploration of gender apartheid, which is not currently an international crime, but could become so," he warned.

Bennett later told reporters, "It appears that if one applies the definition of apartheid, which at the moment is for race, to the situation in Afghanistan and use sex instead of race, then there seem to be strong indications pointing towards that."