as their human rights work in exile may expose them to threats and retaliation by the Taliban. The Taliban’s repressive interpretation of Islamic Sharia law has led to severe gender discrimination against women and girls. In fact, women and girls in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan have now been completely stripped of their very fundamental rights, including the rights to education, employment, and free movement. Most recently, on 22 August, 2024, the Taliban imposed a new range of restrictions, as an attempt to control people’s lives and behaviours.3 Article 13th of the new morality law extends the already intolerable restrictions on women and girls, requiring them to fully cover not only their faces and bodies but also hide their voices in public. The new measure also provides the Taliban’s appointed morality police with what the UN Special Representative, Roza Otunbayeva described as “discretionary powers” to threaten and detain anyone for non-compliance.4 Therefore, an increasing body of evidence suggests that the nature and scope of persecution against women and girls by the Taliban is a clear indication of the crime against humanity of gender persecution under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).5 Likewise, Afghanistan’s LGBTI community now lives in growing fear of violence and persecution. Although Afghanistan society has traditionally had little tolerance for homosexuality, the Taliban’s comeback has subjected the country’s LGBTI individuals largely to detention, torture, and gang 3 BBC Persian, Ali Hussaini., ‘Talibans’ New Law Provides Morality Police Broad Power of Enforcement’, 23 August, 2024, https://rb.gy/tvqk6y 4 UNAMA, ‘Statement from Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of UNAMA’, 25 August , 2024, https://rb.gy/xn6qrx 5 Amnesty International, ‘The Taliban’s War on Women’, 26 May, 2023, https://rb.gy/a2161v 6 rape.6 Since mid-August 2021, a small number of Afghanistan LGBTI individuals have been relocated to countries such as Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. However, a large number of them are still stranded in Afghanistan, being at risk of heightened violence and discrimination and being rendered voiceless without any legal protection. Moreover, credible reports show Taliban’s systematic discrimination and repression of certain ethnic groups, including Hazaras, Tajiks, and Uzbeks. Based on the evidence, hundreds of families belonging to these ethnic communities have faced forced eviction, with their lands and other properties being taken and given to the Taliban affiliates and members.7 Evidence also attests to the Taliban’s massive targeted killings, enforced disappearances, and other ethnically motivated persecution.8 Meanwhile, the Hazaras are reportedly being disproportionately subjected to extreme violence and dehumanisation by the Taliban and affiliates of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) alike because of their distinct ethnic and religious identity. The Hazaras are historically the most persecuted ethnic group in Afghanistan, with their long-standing suffering continuing into the present, aggravated alarmingly by the Taliban’s rise to power. Numerous findings by international rights groups indicate that hundreds of Hazaras have been killed in suicide attacks in their education centers, marketplaces, religious sites, and public transports since the 6 Foreign Policy, Lynne O’Donnell, ‘Millions of Afghans Want to Flee, LGBTQ Afghans Have to’, 22 May, 2022, https://shorturl.at/oLVGJ 7 Human Rights Watch, ‘Afghanistan: Taliban Forcibly Evict Minority Shia’, 22 October, 2021, https:// rb.gy/x9r6zg / Atlantic Council, Natiq Malikzada., ‘Afghanistan’s Future after the Taliban Takeover: Civil War or Disintegration?’, 1 March, 2022, https://rb.gy/ejvbie 8 Afghanistan Analysts Network, ‘Rawadari Report: Targeted and Extrajudicial Killings Surge under Taliban Rule’, Updated on 19 April, 2024, https://shorturl. at/zDqLo