Taliban marks five years in power as UN flags Afghanistan rights crisis

Taliban leaders marked five years in power at Kabul's Loya Jirga, claiming restored security and stability. UN officials said the anniversary also exposed deepening repression of women and a wider human rights emergency.

In Short

• Taliban leaders used the Loya Jirga to project security and sovereignty
• No women attended the Kabul ceremony, underscoring their exclusion from public life
• Russia remains the only country to formally recognise the Taliban government

Taliban rulers and other officials gathered at Afghanistan's traditional Loya Jirga assembly hall on Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of their return to power, saying they had restored stability and ended decades of conflict. At the same time, a top United Nations official warned that Afghanistan was facing a grave human rights crisis, particularly for women and girls.

The Taliban took power on August 15, 2021, as US and other NATO troops withdrew after a two-decade war. The withdrawal led to chaos at Kabul airport as crowds tried to flee the country. Soon after taking power, the Taliban banned girls from education beyond the sixth grade and later barred women from higher education, despite having said before the takeover that women would be allowed access to education, employment and public participation. Women have also been barred from public spaces such as gyms and parks, from sports, and from travelling long distances without a male guardian.

At the Loya Jirga, senior officials were joined by some foreign representatives and thousands of citizens for speeches marking what they described as Afghanistan's liberation from American forces. Taliban deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said, "We pray to Almighty God to forever protect our homeland from occupation, aggression, wars, and insecurity, and to enable our people to enjoy peace, tranquility, and prosperity under the auspices of the Sharia-based government."

Abdul Salam Hanafi, the deputy prime minister for administrative affairs, said Taliban rule had ended an era of external intervention and internal conflict in Afghanistan "over the past half-century" and had restored security. "At least 300 Afghan youth were martyred or killed every day," Hanafi said. "Three hundred sisters would become widows, several children would become orphans and 300 mothers would be grieving. Praise be to God, with the rule of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, this tragedy was removed from the Afghan nation." There were no women at the ceremony.

Five years on, the Taliban government remains internationally isolated, with Russia the only country to have formally recognised it. Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said countries that had engaged with the administration had benefited and urged others to reconsider their position. "They should move towards a policy of engagement and mutual interaction," he said.

Celebrations were held under tight security in Kabul and other provinces. In the capital, supporters carrying Taliban flags gathered in public squares and convoys of vehicles moved through the city, causing traffic jams. Taliban security forces had a heavy presence, with several checkpoints on a main road leading to the Loya Jirga. In provinces across Afghanistan, flags and posters praising the Taliban's return to power were displayed along major roads and in marketplaces.

In a video message, Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, said the country was going through a deep human rights crisis. "While the era of war has ended, it's questionable whether there's real peace, and the human rights situation has steadily deteriorated, most dramatically for women and girls," Bennett said. "My mandate has concluded that this system amounts to the crime against humanity of gender persecution." He added, "The crisis extends well beyond gender discrimination, even beyond gender apartheid," and said the UN continued to document arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings and persecution of minorities. Bennett also warned against "normalising" Taliban policies, saying that would legitimise discrimination and tell "victims their suffering is negotiable."

In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi, the Taliban deputy minister for broadcasting at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said that despite "challenges and difficulties" the administration had delivered security and infrastructure and created jobs over the past five years. Asked about the education of girls and women, Farahi did not address the issue but said "the level of investment made in universities surpasses anything seen in the past."

UNESCO estimates that about 2.4 million girls have been excluded from secondary education. The UN World Food Program said child malnutrition had reached critical levels in a third of Afghanistan's provinces and was expected to worsen because of funding shortfalls. UN Women said this week that women and girls were facing the harshest restrictions in the world, and that the bans were harming Afghanistan's future by deepening shortages of teachers, doctors, nurses and midwives and threatening the country's social and economic foundations. As the Taliban marked five years in power by highlighting security and calling for wider engagement, UN officials and agencies renewed warnings about worsening rights restrictions and broader humanitarian strain in Afghanistan.

With PTI Inputs

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