Volker Türk: Taliban Have Almost Completely Removed Women and Girls from Public Life

Photo: Salvatore Di Nolfi / Keystone via AP Photo

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says Taliban restrictions on women have placed Afghanistan among the countries with the highest maternal mortality rates.

Volker Türk, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Monday (September 8) at the opening of the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council that the Taliban have not only deprived women of access to health services but have also violated their fundamental rights.

According to him, four years after the Taliban’s takeover, the removal of women and girls from public life has become “almost complete.”

These remarks come as the Taliban have imposed extensive restrictions on women over the past four years, including closing girls’ schools above grade six, banning them from universities, and prohibiting medical education. In some areas, women are not even allowed to access health services without a male guardian.