The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) was established in 2006 – five years after the Taliban was overthrown by a US-led coalition – and tasked with overseeing elections and referendums.
Bilal Karimi, a deputy spokesman for Afghanistan’s Taliban-run government, told CNN: “Now that we have reached peace, there is no need for them.”
In September, the group replaced the country’s women’s ministry with prayer and guidance ministries and the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice. The new ministry oversees the Taliban’s ethics police, which enforces the group’s ultra-Orthodox interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.
The UN Women’s report said, “When the Taliban seized power in August, their initial statements included assurances that women would be allowed to exercise their rights under Islamic law, including their studies. and the right to work.” “However, despite these verbal commitments, women and girls are increasingly seeing a reversal of their rights.”
It said women were reporting increased restrictions on “freedom of movement and expression, access to life-saving services, information, security, education, employment and livelihood opportunities.”
Afghanistan is in the midst of what the United Nations calls a “profound humanitarian crisis”, which includes the collapse of the banking system and a severe liquidity crisis.
Most countries have not yet formally recognized the new Taliban government, fearing it could reimpose some of the more extreme harsh measures – including public executions and floggings – that allowed it to come to power for the first time in the 1990s. was applied on.
CNN’s Tamara Qiblavi contributed to this report.
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