ICC unseals warrants for Taliban ministers over ban on girls' education

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday unsealed arrest warrants for two Afghan Taliban education ministers, accusing them of crimes against humanity over the Taliban’s ban on girls’ schooling and women’s university education.

The warrants are for Habibullah Agha, the minister of education, and Neda Mohammad Nadeem, the minister of higher education. They were issued in September 2025 but kept under seal until Monday, Dawn reported, citing AFP.

The accusation

The two are accused of gender-based persecution linked to policies that have:

• Barred girls from school beyond primary level
• Shut women out of higher education since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021

“There are reasonable grounds to believe” the suspects committed “the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds”, the court said. It said the persecution targeted “women and girls, and other persons whose gender expression or identity was viewed as inconsistent with the Taliban’s policy on gender”.

Both ministers were described as instrumental in imposing the supreme leader’s vision of Afghanistan. AFP said it had asked the Taliban authorities for comment.

Four warrants now public

The court’s Pre-Trial Chamber II unsealed all four of its Afghanistan warrants, with redactions. The other two, first announced in July 2025, name supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, The Express Tribune reported.

The judges found the suspects “implemented a governmental policy that resulted in severe violations of fundamental rights and freedoms of the civilian population of Afghanistan, in connection with conducts of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and enforced disappearance”.

The chamber said publishing the warrants would not unduly affect ongoing investigations and could “promote cooperation by the international community, including State Parties”.

Life under the ban

The warrants come as Afghan women and girls describe deepening hardship:

• Only country: UN Women says Afghanistan is the only country in the world that bans girls from secondary school and women from university
• Confined at home: according to UN figures, half of Afghan women now leave their homes only once or twice a month
• Men-only campuses: universities are now open only to men, where smartphones are banned and students can be reprimanded if their beards are too short
• Jobs and travel: women are banned from most jobs and many public places, including parks, and need a male relative to escort them on long journeys
• Health care: health workers told AFP that the ban has caused staff shortages in hospitals, because women can no longer qualify as doctors

Afghans across the country have also told AFP of severe mental health problems linked to the education ban. Some girls try to study online, but power and internet cuts make that hard.

Pakistan’s position

The same concerns were raised by Pakistan on Monday. At the Moscow Format talks on Afghanistan, Pakistan’s Special Representative Mohammad Sadiq said there had been no meaningful progress on “ensuring women’s rights and girls’ education”, alongside the lack of action against terrorist groups operating from Afghan soil.

Why it matters

The warrants are unlikely to lead to arrests soon, but they name the two ministers who run the education system that keeps girls out of class, and add to international pressure on Kabul, which remains largely isolated, while millions of Afghan girls stay out of the classroom. Read our report on Pakistan’s statement at the Moscow talks.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn, The Express Tribune and AFP.