ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Top Taliban Leaders Over Women's Rights Abuses

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, issued arrest warrants for the supreme leader of the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani.

As reported by Anadolu, the ICC prosecutors accused them of committing crimes against humanity and systemic gender-based persecution in Afghanistan since the group returned to power.

"While the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms," the court said in a statement.

In a statement, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber II said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Akhundzada and Haqqani committed crimes against humanity.

This involved persecution by  ordering, inducing, or soliciting discriminatory policies targeting women, girls, and others who do not conform with the Taliban’s views on gender identity or expression.

The Chamber stated that these actions, carried out since August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, until at least January 20, 2025, constituted widespread and systematic violations of fundamental rights and freedoms.

According to the ICC, the Taliban leadership implemented policies that severely deprived the fundamental rights of girls and women, including access to education, freedom of movement, expression, privacy, family life, thought, conscience, and religion.

Others, including individuals identified as "allies of girls and women," were also targeted on political grounds, the court said.

The ICC found that the persecution extended beyond direct violence to encompass institutionalized harm and discriminatory social norms.

"Gender persecution encompasses not only direct acts of violence, but also systemic and institutionalized forms of harm," the ICC statement read.

Moreover, individuals perceived to oppose Taliban policies, even passively, were also targeted, with the court adding that the crimes formed part of the government's official policy.

Although the initial arrest warrants were issued under seal on January 31, 2024, the ICC decided to publicly disclose their existence to prevent further crimes and uphold the interests of justice.

The Taliban quickly dismissed the warrants as "baseless rhetoric," stating that they did not recognize the ICC's authority and referring to the court's failure to protect "hundreds of women and children being killed daily" in Gaza.

"The leadership and officials of the Islamic Emirate have established unparalleled justice in Afghanistan based on the sacred laws of Islamic Sharia," said Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban government spokesperson, in a statement as reported by Aljazeera.

In late 2022, several Muslim-majority countries, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, condemned the Taliban's decision to restrict education for women.

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