Australia announced on Saturday that it has imposed financial sanctions and travel restrictions on four officials from Afghanistan’s Taliban government, citing a worsening human rights situation in the country, particularly affecting women and girls.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the officials were implicated in actions that oppress women and girls and in conduct that weakens good governance or the rule of law under the Taliban administration.
Australia was one of several nations which in August 2021 pulled troops out of Afghanistan, after being part of a Nato-led international force that trained Afghan security forces and fought the Taliban for two decades after Western-backed forces ousted them from power.
The Taliban, since regaining power in Afghanistan, has been criticised for deeply restricting the rights and freedoms of women and girls through bans on education and work.
The Taliban has said it respects women's rights, in line with its interpretation of religious law and local custom.
Wong said in a statement that the sanctions targeted three Taliban ministers and the group's chief justice, accusing them of restricting access for girls and women "to education, employment, freedom of movement and the ability to participate in public life".
The measures were part of a new Australian government framework that enabled it to "directly impose its own sanctions and travel bans to increase pressure on the Taliban, targeting the oppression of the Afghan people", Wong said.
Australia took in thousands of evacuees, mostly women and children, from Afghanistan after the Taliban retook power in the war-shattered South Asian country, where much of the population now relies on humanitarian aid to survive.
