- Measures hit three ministers and the chief justice minister of the Taliban regime.
- Sanctions come under Australia’s new framework to pressure the Taliban.
- Australia has previously evacuated thousands of Afghans after the Alibans took power.
Australia on Saturday imposed economic sanctions and a travel ban on four officials of Afghanistan’s Taliban government over what it said was a worsening human rights situation in the country, particularly for women and girls.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the officials were involved “in the oppression of women and girls and in undermining good governance or the rule of law” in the Taliban-ruled country.
Australia was one of several nations which in August 2021 pulled troops out of Afghanistan, having been part of a Nato-led international force that trained Afghan security forces and fought the Taliban for two decades after Western-backed forces ousted them from power.
Since regaining power in Afghanistan, the Taliban have been criticized for severely restricting the rights and freedoms of women and girls through bans on education and work.
The Taliban have said they respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of religious law and local customs.
Wong said in a statement that the sanctions targeted three Taliban ministers and the group’s chief judge, accusing them of restricting access for girls and women “to education, employment, freedom of movement and the opportunity to participate in public life”.
The measures were part of a new Australian government framework that allowed it to “directly impose its own sanctions and travel bans to increase pressure on the Taliban, aimed at the oppression of the Afghan people”, Wong said.
Australia received thousands of evacuees, mostly women and children, from Afghanistan after the Taliban regained power in the war-torn South Asian country, where much of the population now relies on humanitarian aid to survive.
