The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan said on Thursday (Jan 23) that he is seeking arrest warrants against the top faces of the Taliban for their rulings against Afghan women, saying it's a crime against humanity. 

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Khan said that there is strong evidence that the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the chief justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds”.

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He further added that the women and people from the LGBTQ community in Afghanistan were undergoing “an unprecedented, unconscionable, and ongoing persecution by the Taliban," The Guardian reported. 

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The prosecutor said, “Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable.”

Khan's application will now be considered by the ICC judges, and they will decide if arrest warrants will be issued or not. The entire process can take weeks and even months. 

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The ICC chief said that he would further submit more applications for other Taliban officials and added that other kinds of human crimes are also being committed in Afghanistan. 

“Perceived resistance or opposition to the Taliban was, and is, brutally repressed through the commission of crimes including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts," Khan said in his application. 

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Human Rights Watch said that Khan's actions can put the Taliban's crime against women back on the agenda of the international community.

Since it came back to power in August 2021 in Afghanistan, the Taliban posed tough restrictions on Afghan women that the United Nations has called “gender apartheid”.

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The extremist group has banned women from schools, colleges, and various professions, along with other restrictions. Recently, the Taliban banned window construction in houses, especially in the kitchens, to prevent women from being seen. 

(With inputs from agencies)