EU Cuts Deal with Taliban: Women’s Rights Sold Off to Get Migrants Back
The European Union is negotiating with the Taliban to send Afghan migrants back to Afghanistan, trading away any pretense of protecting women’s rights for a deal on migrant returns. Five years after the Taliban’s takeover, the EU is pushing to resume deportations even though the regime has banned girls from school, legalized child marriage, and allowed men to beat their wives with minimal punishment [181714].
The talks mark a complete reversal of the EU’s stated position. In August 2021, the EU’s top diplomat promised that any cooperation with an Afghan government would depend on respect for fundamental rights. Since then, the Taliban has systematically stripped women of nearly all freedoms: they cannot attend secondary school or university, cannot travel without a male guardian, and are barred from jobs, parks, and public spaces. A new criminal code allows men to beat their wives; if a woman can prove her husband used “obscene force,” he faces only 15 days in prison—compared to five months for harming an animal [181714].
UN experts have described this systematic assault as potentially amounting to “gender apartheid.” Despite this, the EU is now in active talks with the Taliban with the explicit goal of sending migrants back. Critics argue Europe is sacrificing Afghan women’s rights for its own domestic political interests [181714].