TALIBAN rulers were warned of a grave human rights crisis as they celebrated the fifth anniversary of their return to power in Afghanistan.

They were joined by other officials at the Loya Jirga assembly hall in Kabul on Saturday to mark the occasion.

United States and other Nato troops withdrew from the country on August 15 2021, following two decades of occupation.

Soon after taking power, the Taliban administration imposed a ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and later banned higher education for women, despite having pledged before the takeover that women would be allowed access to education, employment and public participation.

Women have also been banned from public spaces such as gyms and parks, from taking part in sports and traveling to distant locations without a male guardian.

At the Loya Jirga, high-ranking officials were joined by some foreign representatives and thousands of ordinary citizens for speeches marking what they said was Afghanistan’s liberation from US forces.

But in a video message, Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, said the country was undergoing a deep human rights crisis.

He said: “While the era of war has ended, it’s questionable whether there’s real peace, and the human rights situation has steadily deteriorated, most dramatically for women and girls. 

“My mandate has concluded that this system amounts to the crime against humanity of gender persecution.”

Noting that the UN continues to document arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings and persecution of minorities in Afghanistan, he continued: “The crisis extends well beyond gender discrimination, even beyond gender apartheid.”

Mr Bennett warned the international community against “normalising” the Taliban’s policies, saying it would legitimise the discrimination and tell “victims their suffering is negotiable.”