As the Taliban step up their war on women and girls, it is clear that appeasement has failed | Gordon Brown

Major powers have renewed diplomatic links while others seek deals to deport migrants. And all the while gender repression is getting worse Afghanistan’s Taliban government has now issued its most extreme edict yet. It is already the only regime in the world where girls are excluded from secondary education. Now it has gone further, debarring all Afghan women from any contact with schools or education and doubling down on what has been rightly condemned as “ gender apartheid ”. This latest wave of repression, which is likely to be classified by United Nations legal authorities as a crime against humanity, marks the victory of the extreme Kandahar clerical faction over Kabul-based government ministers. It is also the latest step in the plan of supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada to erase girls and women from public life. Gordon Brown is the UN’s special envoy for global education and was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010 Continue reading...