Canberra mentioned the Taliban officers are responsible of oppressing ladies and women, in addition to ‘undermining good governance’.
The Australian authorities has imposed monetary sanctions and journey bans on 4 officers in Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities, citing the deteriorating human rights state of affairs within the nation, significantly for ladies and women.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong mentioned in an announcement on Saturday that Canberra had established a “world-first” autonomous sanctions framework for Afghanistan, which might permit it to “immediately impose its personal sanctions and journey bans to extend stress on the Taliban”.
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The new framework additionally introduces an arms embargo, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade mentioned, in addition to prohibitions on “offering associated companies and actions to Afghanistan”.
The division named the sanctioned Taliban officers as Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and the 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.
The Australian Government has established a world-first autonomous sanctions framework for Afghanistan, as a part of our ongoing efforts to carry the Taliban to account.
In impact from at the moment, we have now additionally introduced the primary listings beneath the brand new framework.
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) December 5, 2025
Wong mentioned the officers had been sanctioned attributable to their involvement “within the oppression of ladies and women and in undermining good governance or the rule of regulation”.
“This contains proscribing entry to schooling, employment, freedom of motion and the flexibility to take part in public life,” she mentioned.
Canberra mentioned its new framework “builds on” the 140 people and entities it already sanctions as a part of the United Nations Security Council’s Taliban framework.
Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities is but to publicly reply to Canberra’s newest measures.
In July, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Chief Justice Haqqani, alongside the Taliban’s supreme chief, Haibatullah Akhunzada, for alleged crimes towards humanity for persecuting ladies and women.
Announcing the sanctions, the ICC mentioned the Taliban has “severely disadvantaged” women and girls of the rights to schooling, privateness, household life and the freedoms of motion, expression, thought, conscience and faith.
Since returning to energy following the withdrawal of United States and NATO troops – of which Australia was a component – from Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban has enacted extreme restrictions on the rights and freedoms of ladies and women, together with the proper to work and research.
The Taliban has rejected accusations of violating ladies’s rights, claiming they’re revered “inside the framework of Islamic regulation”.
In December 2022, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Higher Education banned feminine college students from the nation’s universities till additional discover, in a transfer broadly condemned by the worldwide group.
Last yr, the UN mentioned the Taliban authorities had “intentionally disadvantaged” at the very least 1.4 million women of their proper to an schooling throughout its time in energy, completely about 80 % of school-age women.
Afghans have additionally been plunged additional into poverty for the reason that Taliban takeover, fuelled partially by the ban on feminine participation within the office, with huge swaths of the nation’s inhabitants now closely reliant on humanitarian support to outlive.
In her assertion, Wong mentioned the Australian authorities “stays deeply involved on the deteriorating state of affairs” within the nation, persevering with {that a} “humanitarian allow” had been carved out within the new sanctions framework, permitting the continued provision of support.
“Our ideas are with these struggling beneath the Taliban’s oppression, in addition to the Afghan group in Australia,” she mentioned.
