All women and girls from Afghanistan are eligible for refugee status, the European Union’s agency for asylum has declared. But it's up to each country to decide whether it agrees.
EU Agency for Asylum (EUAA) stated that women and girls are in general at risk of persecution in Afghanistan, and should be granted refugee status. Harsh restrictions on women and girls and the Taliban’s implementation of strict religious 'sharia' law has left that women and girls are in general at risk of persecution in Afghanistan. The position of women in Afghanistan has deteriorated significantly since the Taliban’s rise to power and still further in late 2022.
Their rights and freedoms have been restricted significantly. Men accompanying women wearing colorful clothing, or without a face covering, have been brutally beaten by Taliban officers. The Taliban are removing women and girls’ agency by punishing male relatives for the purported offences of women, and instrumentalising one gender against another by encouraging men and boys to control the behaviour, attire and movement of women and girls in their circles. We are deeply concerned that such actions are intended to compel men and boys to punish women and girls who resist the Taliban’s erasure of them, further depriving them of their rights, and normalizing violence against them.
The number of bans and restrictions have increased on Afghan women’s access to work and education, to freedom of movement and expression – fundamental rights set down in international human rights declarations and treaties. After which the Taliban took power in Afghanistan private universities barwomen from taking university entrance examinations.
Countries like Denmark and Sweden announced that women and girls from Afghanistan would be granted refugee status solely based on gender.
