The report said the Taliban have pledged to protect all ethnic and religious groups.
Washington:
A bipartisan US commission said on Tuesday that the state of religious freedom in Afghanistan has “significantly worsened” since the Taliban seized power last year, as the last US-led foreign troops withdrew after 20 years of war. Had taken.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom said the “drastic enforcement” of its fanatical version of Islam by Sunni Muslim extremists “violates the freedom of religion or belief” of a wide range of Afghans.
The congressional panel released its report nine days after the Taliban captured Kabul, a year after it returned to power nearly two decades after its ouster from the 2001 US-led invasion.
The report said the Taliban have pledged to protect all ethnic and religious groups.
Still, it said, “the situation of religious freedom in Afghanistan has become very bad,” with the militants re-introducing “drastic restrictions on all Afghans” based on their harsh interpretation of Islam.
The report said those negatively affected include religious minorities, Afghans “with differing interpretations of Islam”, women, the LGBTQ community and proselytists.
The report said the Taliban were responsible for the deaths of dozens of thousands, an ethnic minority following Shia Islam, and failed to protect them from attacks by a Taliban rival, the regional branch of Islamic State.
He reestablished a ministry that includes ethics police who have targeted women by imposing strict dress and behavior, including covering their faces, and limiting their right to movement, education, participation in sports and work.
Both the Taliban and the Islamic State have targeted Sufis, followers of the mystical Islam.
“The Taliban’s occupation of Afghanistan has declined sharply and the already small Afghan Hindu and Sikh communities are on the verge of extinction,” the report said, and the militants deny “the existence of a Christian community”, which is believed to be a Christian community. Worship should be done in secret, the report said.
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