EU Risks Deal with Taliban: Women’s Rights Sacrificed for Migrant Returns

Five years after the fall of Kabul, European nations are pushing to send Afghan migrants back home. They are doing so despite the Taliban’s brutal crackdown on women and girls. In August 2021, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, promised that any cooperation with a future Afghan government would depend on respect for fundamental rights. But the Taliban immediately began attacking women’s rights. They have banned girls from secondary school and university. They have legalized child marriage. Women cannot travel without a male guardian. They are excluded from jobs, parks, and even bathhouses. Their voices are forbidden in public. A new criminal code allows men to beat their wives. If a woman can prove her husband used “obscene force,” he may face only 15 days in prison. In contrast, harming an animal can mean five months in jail. These restrictions are not just oppressive. In a country gripped by a humanitarian crisis, they are often deadly. UN experts say this systematic assault on women may amount to “gender apartheid.” Despite this, the EU is now in talks with the Taliban. The goal: to send migrants back. Critics say Europe is selling out the rights of Afghans for its own political interests.