KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Purple Saturdays Movement, an Afghan women-led protest group, has welcomed the International Criminal Court’s issuance of arrest warrants for Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and acting Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, calling for their firm and effective enforcement.
In a statement released Wednesday, the group warned that failure to implement the warrants and allowing them to remain symbolic would likely lead to an escalation of human rights violations by the Taliban.
“It is highly likely that in response to the arrest warrants for their leaders, the Taliban will escalate their repression and restrictions against the Afghan people, especially women, vulnerable ethnic groups, and religious minorities,” the statement read. “The Taliban has historically responded to international pressure not with reform, but by intensifying such repressive policies.”
The movement said the arrest warrants carry a clear and powerful message: the international community cannot turn a blind eye to gender apartheid, crimes against humanity targeting women, and widespread human rights violations in Afghanistan.
The group further stated that the warrants serve as a potentially significant deterrent to efforts aimed at legitimizing the Taliban’s self-declared and unlawful rule.
Members of the Purple Saturdays Movement urged the ICC to go beyond issuing the current warrants by taking meaningful steps to ensure their enforcement and expanding them to include other Taliban leaders.
They also called on international human rights organizations, women’s rights advocates, and civil society groups to exert coordinated and effective diplomatic pressure to bring Taliban leaders to justice and to end what they described as a policy of appeasement disguised as engagement.
On Tuesday, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Akhundzada and Haqqani, citing crimes against humanity, including the systematic persecution of women, girls, and individuals who do not conform to the Taliban’s rigid gender norms.
The announcement has drawn strong reactions from global human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which described the move as an important but long-overdue step toward justice for victims of gender-based persecution in Afghanistan.
In response, the Taliban declared that they do not recognize the ICC’s authority and are not bound by its decisions.
However, Afghanistan became a party to the Rome Statute in February 2003, granting the ICC jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes against humanity committed in the country after May 2003.
