Arrest warrants have been issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for two senior leaders of the Taliban on charges of crimes against humanity for systematic persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan.
In a Tuesday statement, the ICC stated that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani were behind policies that dramatically curtailed the rights of Afghan women and girls. These include prohibitions on education, employment, freedom of movement, and expression, and the dismantling of privacy and family life.
The court stated these crimes were committed between August 2021, when the Taliban retook control, and January 2025, when Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan issued the warrants formally.
Afghan human rights activists welcomed the gesture as a milestone. “This is a recognition of our suffering,” said Tahera Nasiri, a women’s rights activist who now resides in Canada. “The Taliban instructed us to vanish. Now the world is telling them: This is a crime.
Even though it is not certain that the warrants will ever be executed, the move is the first time there has been a formal indictment of senior Taliban officials with international crimes. “They’re no longer just political leaders they’re fugitives,” Nasiri said.
Since 2021, women have been prohibited by the Taliban from attending secondary school, public places, and the vast majority of paid work. The UN and other global agencies have denounced their policies as institutionalized gender persecution, and a few activists are calling for their actions to be officially recognized globally as gender apartheid.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called on ICC states to move fast. “These men need to be held responsible,” stated HRW’s Liz Evesson.
Former Taliban captive Parwana Nijrabi added: “It may not be easy to arrest them, but this is an important step toward justice for Afghan women.”