For girls in Afghanistan, school ends after the sixth grade. Women are barred from university, making Afghanistan the only country in the world with both restrictions.
On 5 October 2026, the International Criminal Court unsealed arrest warrants for Habibullah Agha, the Afghan education minister, and Neda Mohammad Nadeem, the higher education minister. The warrants accuse them of crimes against humanity over policies that have kept girls over 12 out of school and excluded women from higher education since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.
The case puts the Taliban’s education policy before the court as an alleged crime of persecution on gender grounds. The ICC said there were reasonable grounds to believe the two ministers committed that crime against women and girls.
Agha and Nadeem are accused of playing key roles in putting into effect the vision of the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada. The court authorised a separate warrant for Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the president of the Taliban Supreme Court, in July 2025.
The warrants for the two education ministers were issued on 9 September 2025 and remained sealed until 5 October 2026. The court unsealed all four warrants after deciding that publication would not unduly affect its continuing investigations.
The alleged persecution ran from the Taliban takeover until at least 20 January 2025, the court said. It said the deprivation of fundamental rights was connected with other alleged crimes, including imprisonment, torture, rape and enforced disappearance.
The restrictions reach far beyond classrooms. The Taliban have shut women and girls out of many forms of employment and imposed extensive limits on movement, public places, expression and participation in social life. Women are barred from most jobs and places including parks, and need a close male relative to accompany them on long journeys.
Afghan universities have become men-only institutions. Smartphones are banned, and students may be chastised over the length of their beards. The ban on higher education has also created hospital staff shortages because women can no longer qualify as doctors.
United Nations figures say half of Afghan women now leave home only once or twice a month. On the day the warrants were disclosed, the UN Human Rights Council called on Taliban authorities to repeal what it described as the worsening and systematic oppression of women and girls. Its 47 member countries unanimously criticised discrimination against women and girls in Afghanistan.
Karim Khan, the former ICC chief prosecutor who sought the warrants, said his applications “recognise that Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban”.
The Taliban government rejects the court’s authority. Zabihullah Mujahid, its spokesman, said: “Afghanistan does not recognise any court under the title of the International Court, nor does it attach any significance to its positions”.
All four officials remain in Afghanistan, where the Taliban controls the country. The ICC has no police force and depends on its member states to enforce its warrants, leaving any arrest difficult under current circumstances.
Comments (0)