The Organization of Islamic Cooperation: denounces the Taliban: their bans against women disfigure the image of Islam

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has strongly condemned the Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan. Meeting in Islamabad on July 12 and 13, representatives of Muslim countries affirmed that these policies “tarnish the essence and image of Islam”. Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have banned girls from continuing their education after primary school. They also drove women out of many jobs, out of universities, out of parks, and out of much of public life.

These decisions do not protect women: they lock them up, deprive them of a future and condemn them to depend entirely on men. The Taliban have transformed Afghanistan into a huge open-air prison for millions of women and girls. The OIC recalls that these bans are incompatible with the Islamic principles of dignity, justice and access to knowledge. By using religion to justify their obsession with control and their misogyny, the Taliban bear a heavy responsibility for the degradation of the image of Islam throughout the world.

However, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid continues to assert that women’s rights are fully respected. A statement totally disconnected from reality. How can we talk about rights when adolescent girls are deprived of school, when women are prevented from working and when they can no longer move freely? The Taliban do not defend Islam. They defend a brutal, retrograde and deeply unjust system, built on the erasure of women. Their extremist interpretation should not be confused with a religion which has made the search for knowledge an obligation.

The OIC called on Taliban leaders to immediately lift these bans and allow Afghan women to study, work and participate fully in the life of their country. As long as the Taliban maintain this shameful policy, their religious discourses will not be able to mask the reality of their oppression.

Basically, the Taliban do not just oppress women: they disfigure Islam, take it hostage and use it as a screen to cover their brutality. They methodically organize ignorance, because they know that an educated, autonomous woman capable of working escapes their influence more easily. Their regime does not defend faith, morality or human dignity: it only defends the power of men obsessed with control. By closing schools, banning universities and erasing women from public space, they are transforming a religion of knowledge and justice into a sinister caricature. The Taliban are not the guardians of Islam: they are its distorters, gravediggers and worst enemies.