KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has called on the Taliban authorities to reconsider their policies concerning women and girls, particularly those affecting their education and employment.
The concern was raised during a meeting between OIC envoy for Afghanistan, Tarig Ali Bakhit, and Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on the sidelines of the OIC meeting in Cameroon on Thursday, August 29.
According to the OIC statement, both sides discussed the implementation of OIC Council of Foreign Ministers’ resolutions on Afghanistan, particularly the Taliban’s decisions regarding women and girls.
“The meeting also discussed efforts to combat terrorism and drugs. The meeting also discussed the security, humanitarian, and economic situation in the country,” OIC stated in the statement.
The OIC Council of Foreign Ministers began its meeting in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, on Thursday. Despite being invited, the Taliban foreign minister was excluded from the official group photos, similar to the OIC meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2021.
During the three years of Taliban rule, Afghanistan has become one of the most oppressive countries for women and girls. The regime has severely restricted their movements, denying them access to education, employment, social mobility, and other fundamental freedoms.
Since their return to power in August 2021, the Taliban have issued over 100 edicts based on a harsh interpretation of Sharia law, stripping women and girls of their most basic rights and freedoms.
Despite significant calls and pressure from around the world, including from Islamic countries and organizations, for the Taliban to uphold the fundamental rights of women and girls, the fundamentalist regime continues to issue edicts that effectively erase women from public life.
Last week, the regime introduced a new set of restrictions known as the “Vice and Virtue” laws, which require women to fully veil their bodies in public and forbid them from speaking aloud, deeming their voices as instruments of vice.
The new law prohibits women from singing or reading aloud even within their own homes, from looking directly at men who are not related by blood or marriage, and from using taxis without a male guardian.
This is not the first time the OIC, the largest Islamic organization in the world, has expressed concern about the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls.
Last year, the Secretary-General of the Organization, Hissein Brahim Taha, described the Taliban’s policies towards women as contrary to Islamic teachings and “in violation of the principles of Islamic law and the methodology of the Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad.”
In addition to the OIC, some Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, have also condemned the Taliban’s edicts against women as contrary to Islamic teachings and have repeatedly urged the group to reconsider decision and reverse the bans.
