Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of the new promulgated rules in Afghanistan by the Taliban forbidding women from listening to other women’s voices; and when they last raised the topic of gender apartheid and the rights of women in Afghanistan in the UN Human Rights Council and at the General Assembly.

We have repeatedly condemned Taliban restrictions on women and girls' rights internationally, most recently in statements at the UN General Assembly on 8 October and at the UN Human Rights Council on 9 October. Officials have directly pressed the Taliban to reverse their repressive 'vice and virtue' law and that we consider it to be a grotesque backwards-step.

We are aware of calls for the inclusion of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Afghanistan attended an event in Parliament on this on 29 October. There are complex legal and political questions associated with gender apartheid and we will take these into account when forming our position.