HRW: No Improvement in Status of Women Under Taliban

Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2000 concludes that there has been no improvement in the situation of women in areas of Afghanistan under Taliban control. “Taliban officials continued to beat women on the streets of Kabul for dress code violations and for venturing outside the home without the company of a close male relative,” cites the report. The report also documents the continued restriction on women’s employment and girls education.

Human Rights Watch highlights the influx of refugees and displaced people in the past year as a result of ruthless Taliban offensives that amount to ethnic genocide. “…the Taliban forced civilians from their homes and then set fire to houses and crops, and destroyed irrigation canals and wells, ostensibly to rout opposition sympathizers but effectively preventing the residents’ return.” Men suspected of loyalty to an opposition group were reportedly arrested or killed and women and children either trucked to Pakistan or forced to walk to Kabul. During a two-week period the U.N. estimates that forty thousand people fled to Kabul alone.

Media Resources: HRW and FMF - December 23, 1999

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