โ๏ธ ๐ฆ๐ซ The International Criminal Court unsealed arrest warrants Monday for two more Taliban officials: Education Minister Habibullah Agha and Higher Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadim. They are accused of crimes against humanity for gender persecution of women, girls and LGBTQI+ people since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
The court first issued their warrants in 2025, alongside warrants for Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, which were made public in July 2025.
The judges found that the Taliban "specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms," including education and freedom of movement. The Taliban have barred girls from school beyond sixth grade, banned women from universities and most jobs, and restricted their access to public spaces.
In the warrants, the court also found that "gender" under the Rome Statute goes beyond "a purely biological conception of sex," and covers socially constructed roles and norms.
The ICC has no way to enforce the warrants while the Taliban control Afghanistan. In 2021, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan "deprioritized" alleged crimes by US forces in the same Afghanistan investigation, a year after the first Trump administration sanctioned ICC officials over the probe.
๐ฅIn the UK, a public inquiry is examining unlawful killings by British special forces, and over 30 veterans have told the BBC and Sky News that executions of unarmed people, including detainees, were "daily and routine." No ICC warrants have been issued for US or UK personnel.