Gender Apartheid under Taliban Rule: Human Rights Violations, Economic Costs, and Islamic Jurisprudential Rebuttals (2021–2025)

Abstract

Since taking power in August 2021, Taliban edicts and laws have been devastating the rights, freedoms and public presence of women and girls in Afghanistan, through over 100 restrictions, decrees and edicts. The article analyzes the scope, structure, and effects of what the UN, Human Rights Watch, and the International Criminal Court have labelled as “gender apartheid” an institutionalized system of gender-based segregation, which is said to constitute a crime against humanity. In fact, like the majority of Islamic scholarship, Taliban gender policies are not based on genuine Quranic injunctions or the prophetic tradition (Sunnah). Based on Quranic ayaat, classical Islamic fiqh, fresh fatwas by leading Muslim scholars and the latest quantitative data from UN Women, UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, and the World Economic Forum, this article registers the astonishing socio-economic, humanitarian, legal and theological dimensions of Taliban rule. This article is a secondary source of qualitative data. It claims that Taliban gender apartheid constitutes a crime against humanity under international law and a severe distortion of Islam. This duality creates a dual obligation on the two international actors and global Muslim ummah.