December 7, 2025 | 09:27 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Australia on Saturday imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on four officials in the Taliban government of Afghanistan over what it called a deteriorating human rights situation in the country, especially for women and girls.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, as quoted by Arab News , 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-led country.
"Canberra has established the world's first autonomous sanctions framework for Afghanistan, which will allow it to directly impose its own sanctions and travel bans to increase pressure on the Taliban," Wong said, as reported by Al Jazeera.
This new framework also introduces an arms embargo, according to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as well as a ban on "providing services and related activities to Afghanistan".
The department named the sanctioned Taliban officials as Minister for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Muhammad Khalid Hanafi; Minister of Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadeem; Minister of Justice Abdul-Hakim Sharei; and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani.
Wong accused them of restricting access for girls and women "to education, work, freedom of movement, and ability to participate in public life."
Australia is one of the few countries that withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, after being part of the NATO-led international forces training Afghan security forces and fighting the Taliban for two decades. This was after Western-backed forces overthrew the Islamist extremists from power.
Since returning to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban has been criticized for severely limiting the rights and freedoms of women and girls through bans on education and work.
The Taliban has said it respects the rights of women, in line with their interpretation of Islamic law and local traditions.
In December 2022, the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education banned female students from entering universities in the country until further notice, a move widely condemned by the international community.
Last year, the UN declared that the Taliban government had "deliberately deprived" at least 1.4 million girls of their right to education during its rule, accounting for around 80 percent of school-aged girls.
Poverty in Afghanistan has also worsened since the Taliban came to power, partly due to the ban on women's participation in the workforce, with much of the population now heavily reliant on humanitarian aid for survival.
Australia has welcomed thousands of refugees, mostly women and children, from Afghanistan after the Taliban regained control of the war-ravaged South Asian country.
In July, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Chief Justice Haqqani, along with Taliban's supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhunzada, for alleged crimes against humanity for persecuting women and girls.
Announcing the sanctions, the ICC stated that the Taliban had "seriously deprived" girls and women of the right to education, privacy, family life, as well as freedom of movement, expression, thought, belief, and religion.
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