David Sproule, Canada’s special representative for Afghanistan, has condemned recent cuts to women’s rights by the Taliban.
Earlier this week, the regime banned women from reciting the Quran or hearing each other’s prayers.
”It seems like more and more edicts are coming out that further oppress women and exclude them from public life. And that’s very discouraging, and I think any illusions about the Taliban and their motives and policies have long since dissipated,” Sproule told CBC News in an interview Friday.
Mr. Sproule is a former Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan. He worked there from 2005 to 2007.
After Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, then-Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau appointed him as the Canadian government’s representative in dealings with the new government.
“Every time I think we’ve probably reached the limit of repression, I think there’s going to be another edict, and then another,” Sproul said.
United Nations, activists call for stronger action from Canada
his words follow Recent visit to Canada Written by Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan. She called on Ottawa to step up its support for international human rights and grant refugee status to all Afghan women and girls seeking asylum here.
“I am committed to Canada’s commitment to saving lives and addressing basic human needs, including education, livelihoods, and human rights work, including legal assistance and safe migration programs,” Bennett said in a statement released earlier this week. I encourage them to continue.”
Huliba Rezaee, an Afghan activist currently based in Canada, said Canada should go further and called for military action.
“Whenever they accuse the Taliban of wrongdoing, that doesn’t apply to the Taliban,” she told CBC News. “The Taliban don’t read, and the Taliban don’t care, because to them it’s just empty words.”
Rezayee runs Women Leaders of Tomorrow, a Vancouver-based organization that advocates for the education and empowerment of Afghan women.
Mr. Rezaee said Canadian troops would return to Afghanistan and that the government would provide armed support to the Afghan National Resistance Front, a military alliance based in northern Afghanistan that is one of the main resistance groups confronting the Taliban. proposed both.
He also said Canada could label the Taliban’s attacks on women’s rights as gender apartheid, which could lead to the International Criminal Court starting legal proceedings against the Taliban regime.
A UN Human Rights Council report released last year concluded that the Taliban may be committing gender apartheid.
Sproul said he does not expect the Taliban’s grip on power in Afghanistan to be lost in the foreseeable future.
“Afghanistan will probably have to face continued Taliban rule,” he said.
He also said there was significant international agreement on the need for “a long-term political climate that means power sharing and a relaxation of the severe restrictions placed on Afghans, especially women and girls.”
“The combination of internal and external pressures is really starting to build,” he added.
Sproul said Canada supports the National Resistance Front’s political message but cannot encourage armed action against the regime.
