EU Parliament Member Calls for Sanctions on Taliban Regime Over Women’s Rights Violations
Hannah Neumann, a member of the European Parliament, expressed serious concerns over the penal code enforced by the Taliban administration and urged the European Union to impose sanctions on the group. She stated that the Taliban’s policies and laws have forced women into “compulsory dependency” and paved the way for their systematic exclusion from society.
On Wednesday, Neumann said in a video message that women in Afghanistan are barred from working, girls are denied education, and women cannot move freely in many areas without a male guardian. According to her, this situation is not merely a social restriction but a form of “slavery” and deprivation of women’s human independence.
The European Parliament member emphasized that the law should be a tool to protect citizens, but in Afghanistan, the current laws have become a means to exclude women from social and civil life. She added that what the Taliban administration enforces under the guise of culture or religion is, in practice, a legal framework based on gender discrimination that strips women of their fundamental rights.
Neumann called on the European Union to respond to what she described as anti-women actions by imposing “targeted sanctions” on responsible officials. She also proposed that the concept of “gender apartheid” be recognized as a crime against humanity within the EU legal framework and that practical support for Afghan girls and women be increased. According to her, the global community’s silence on this situation should not be seen as neutrality but as ignoring the suffering of millions of women.
This comes while over the past year, some EU member states have taken steps toward limited engagement with the Taliban administration. Issues such as managing the process of deporting refugees, verifying the identity and documents of migrants, and security concerns have been cited as reasons motivating several European countries to establish contacts with Taliban representatives.
Within this context, Germany has handed over the Afghan embassy and consulates to Taliban representatives, and Norway and Austria have also accepted representatives of the group. These actions, coinciding with ongoing extensive restrictions on women’s rights in Afghanistan, have provoked critical reactions.
