Afghan women and girls have been suffering under the Taliban for three years

Berlin (dpa) – Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has condemned the Taliban’s treatment of women in Afghanistan as the “most severe systematic human rights violations worldwide”. “Three years ago today, the lives of everyone in Afghanistan, and above all the women and girls, were turned upside down,” Baerbock said. Every day since then, the Taliban had destroyed the hopes of millions of Afghan women and girls, she added. 

On 15 August 2021, the militant Islamist Taliban had seized power in Afghanistan following the withdrawal from the country of foreign troops, including those of the German Armed Forces. Ever since, they have been drastically restricting the rights of women and girls. According to the UN, Afghanistan is the only country in the world that denies women and girls above the age of twelve access to education. Baerbock said: “Half of the population is no longer permitted to do things that are part of any normal life. They can’t work, they can’t enter a hospital or restaurant alone, they’re not allowed to sing, to show their face on the street, to go to school once they reach their teens, to be women.”