PSOE asks embassies and consulates to offer protection to Afghan women who have fled

Eduardo González The Socialist Parliamentary Group has asked the Government to facilitate Afghan women fleeing persecution in their country the possibility of requesting international protection from Spanish embassies and consulates. In a non-legislative motion presented on 25 September for debate in the Foreign Affairs Committee of Congress, the Socialist Group regrets that the seizure of power by the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2021 “meant the return of human rights violations, especially of the human rights of women, girls and adolescents, on a constant basis and with absolute impunity”. “Although they initially promised that Afghan women would be able to exercise their rights” within the limits of their interpretation of sharia (Islamic law), “the Taliban have systematically excluded women, girls and adolescents from public life”, the text continues. “Although the restrictive and impositional decrees implemented since the beginning of their government were presented as provisional measures to ‘protect the population’, particularly women, girls and adolescents, these regulations remain in force and have been tightened three years later”, it adds. Since August 2021, Afghan women have been banned from higher education and have been excluded from the labour market, “which has seriously damaged the family economy of a large part of the population, in addition to seeking to nullify 50% of the population and their right to development and personal autonomy,” denounces the PSOE. In addition, it continues, “all women, regardless of their age, live under a strict dress code, facing punishments such as whipping, beatings and verbal and all kinds of abuse in case of ‘defying these rules’”, and “no woman can leave her home unless she is accompanied by a ‘mahran’, that is, a closely related man such as a father, brother or husband”. Likewise, the Taliban “deny them their freedom of expression” and women “cannot decide whether they marry, who they marry, whether they want children and how many they want to have, nor can they decide whether or not they want to have sexual relations”. This situation has been aggravated by the new law for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in the Official Journal, published on July 31, “implemented by the powerful Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, an administration that potentially controls all aspects of the life of Afghans, both social and private, and that guarantees the application of sharia law.” For all these reasons, the Non-Law Proposal urges the Government of Spain to “continue condemning all actions that endanger the security, human rights and fundamental freedoms of women, adolescents and girls in Afghanistan,” to condition humanitarian action on respect for “the lives of Afghan women, adolescents and girls” and to continue providing economic and political support to the United Nations Agencies that still operate on the ground. The Commission also urges Pedro Sánchez's government to "continue to facilitate the request for international protection by Afghan nationals, especially women fleeing the country due to political persecution when their physical integrity is at risk, at Spanish embassies and consulates" and to support the maintenance of sanctions imposed by the European Union "against those who constitute a threat to the peace, stability and security of Afghanistan."

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