Taliban's treatment of women could be 'gender apartheid' - UN expert

GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations expert said on Monday that the Taliban's treatment of Afghan women and girls could amount to gender apartheid as their rights continue to be gravely infringed by the country's de facto authorities.

"Grave, systematic and institutionalised 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," U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, told the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The U.N. defines gender apartheid as "economic and social sexual discrimination against individuals because of their gender or sex."

"We have pointed to the need for more exploration of gender apartheid, which is not currently an international crime, but could become so," Bennett told reporters on the sidelines of the Council.

"It appears 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."

The Taliban seized power in August 2021, drastically curtailing women's freedoms and rights, including their ability to attend high school and university.

In a report covering July to December 2022, Bennett found in March that the Taliban's treatment of women and girls "may amount to gender persecution, a crime against humanity."

"These serious deprivations of women's and girls' fundamental rights and the harsh enforcement by the de facto authorities of their restrictive measures may constitute the crime against humanity of gender persecution," Bennett reiterated on Monday at the Human Rights Council.

In April, Taliban authorities also began enforcing a ban on Afghan women working for the U.N. after stopping women working for aid groups in December.

The Taliban authorities say they respects women's rights in accordance with their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Marguerita Choy)