Australia imposes sanctions, travel bans on four IEA officials

Australia on Saturday announced financial sanctions and travel bans on four senior officials of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), citing what it described as a worsening human rights situation in the country, particularly for women and girls.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the targeted officials were involved “in the oppression of women and girls and in undermining good governance or the rule of law.”

Australia had been part of the NATO-led international mission in Afghanistan before withdrawing its troops in August 2021.

Wong said the sanctions target three IEA ministers and the IEA’s chief justice, accusing them of restricting women’s and girls’ access to education, employment, freedom of movement, and participation in public life.

The officials include Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice; Neda Mohammad Nadeem, Minister of Higher Education; Abdul Hakim Sharei, Minister of Justice; and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani.

According to Wong, the measures fall under Australia’s new sanctions framework, which allows Canberra to “directly impose its own sanctions and travel bans to increase pressure on the Taliban (IEA), targeting the oppression of the Afghan people.”

Responding to the announcement, Saif-ul-Islam Khaibar, spokesperson for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, criticized the sanctions.

He claimed that countries imposing such measures “are themselves violators of women’s rights” and called Australia’s move an insult to the religious and cultural values of Afghans.

Khaibar added that the IEA has “stopped rights violations of hundreds of thousands of women over the past four years.”