Polish lawmakers call for international solidarity with Afghan women

The Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament, has appealed to European institutions and the international community to express solidarity with Afghan women standing to lose their fundamental rights as the Taliban seized control of the country.

According to a resolution adopted by the majority of Polish lawmakers, women in Afghanistan, "as a result of the Taliban seizure of power, risk the permanent loss of their hard-won rights to education, work, health protection, and personal freedom."

Polish MPs said in the resolution that Afghan women "who obtained political rights and were emancipated again only 20 years ago" should not be allowed to be deprived of "the rights of all people."

They added that "human rights guaranteed by international treaties are the highest value, and their observance should be a condition of any political action."

"The beliefs of the Taliban, which are manifested in the lack of acceptance for women's rights as human rights, cannot be tolerated by the civilised world," the adopted resolution read.

In January, United Nations human rights experts estimated that, since taking power in August 2021, Taliban leaders have been systematically excluding women from Afghanistan's public life and using institutional violence against them.

A number of restrictions imposed on female citizens of Afghanistan, including denied access to education, have negatively affected female employment opportunities, exacerbating the poverty afflicting Afghan women.

Since the Taliban took power in the country, special courts and prosecutors' offices to deal with cases of violence against women have been dissolved. The women's ministry has been replaced with a ministry of for the promotion of virtue. The buildings of the Independent Commission of Human Rights and facilities providing protection to female victims have been seized by fundamentalists.