EU top court rules Afghan women are a persecuted group

The European Court of Justice (ECJ), the highest court in the EU, ruled on Friday that women in Afghanistan are subjected  to persecution by the Taliban.

The ruling said that certain discriminatory measures adopted by the Taliban constitute "acts of persecution," citing forced marriage and lack of protection against gender-based violence.

As such, the court sided with two Afghan women in Austria who had argued their status as women under the Taliban regime justified receiving refugee status.

What did the court say about persecution of Afghan women?

The case came to the ECJ at the request of the Austrian Supreme Administrative Court after the two Afghan women challenged a decision by Austrian authorities to refuse to recognize their refugee status.

The Austrian court requested clarification as to whether the discriminatory measures against women in Afghanistan could be classified as acts of persecution.

The ECJ said some measures, in themselves, were acts of persecution.

"This is true of forced marriage, which is comparable to a form of slavery, and the lack of protection against gender-based violence and domestic violence, which constitute forms of inhuman and degrading treatment," the court said in its statement on Friday.

It added that other measures, which may not be sufficiently serious to be classified as breaches of fundamental rights when taken on their own, did constitute a breach when taken cumulatively.

The ECJ also ruled that authorities in EU member states do not need to establish whether Afghan women will be subjected to persecution if they return home, on an individual basis. Instead, the court said that "it is sufficient to take into account her nationality and gender alone."

Edited by: Sean Sinico