France’s Special Envoy for Human Rights, Isabelle Rome, said the rights of Afghan women and girls must remain at the center of the international agenda five years after the Taliban returned to power, warning that systematic restrictions imposed by the group cannot become normalized.
Speaking at a high-level event on Afghanistan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Rome said France “will never compromise” on the rights of Afghan women and girls and condemned what she described as the Taliban’s systematic violations of their fundamental freedoms. She said Paris remains committed to ensuring women’s rights are explicitly reflected in UN resolutions on Afghanistan.
Rome described the Taliban’s morality law as another example of a sustained assault on women’s rights, saying the restrictions imposed on education, employment, public participation, and freedom of movement have deepened Afghanistan’s human rights crisis. She urged the international community not to allow the situation of Afghan women to fade from global attention.
“Amid the overwhelming number of crises the world faces every day, we must not forget Afghan women,” Rome said, calling for continued international efforts to expose abuses and hold those responsible accountable.
France has been among the countries pushing for international accountability over alleged abuses in Afghanistan. Rome said France, together with five other countries, referred the situation of Afghan women and girls to the International Criminal Court and continues to support an independent investigative mechanism established by the UN Human Rights Council to document alleged crimes committed in Afghanistan. She said the mechanism aims to advance “truth, justice, and the fight against impunity.”
The remarks come as UN officials and European governments continue to describe the Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls as one of the main obstacles to Afghanistan’s reintegration into the international community. The United Nations has repeatedly said bans on women’s education, employment, and participation in public life undermine humanitarian operations and Afghanistan’s long-term stability.
France has maintained that engagement with Afghanistan cannot come at the expense of women’s rights. The French government has refused to reopen its embassy in Kabul, continues to support sanctions and accountability efforts targeting Taliban leaders, and says respect for women’s rights remains a central condition for any normalization of relations with the Taliban authorities.
Rome urged governments and international institutions to continue documenting abuses against Afghan women and girls and to support Afghan women human rights defenders, journalists, and civil society activists. She said women’s rights are “never secondary or conditional,” but an inseparable part of a just, stable, and sustainable international order.
Five years after the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, Afghan women remain barred from secondary and higher education, excluded from many forms of employment, and subject to sweeping restrictions on their presence in public life, measures that the UN and several governments say continue to isolate Afghanistan internationally.
