Today the International Criminal Court has made public two new arrest warrants against education ministers in Afghanistan for gender-based persecution, one of the crimes against humanity.
© Lina Selg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
05/10/2026
by
Lusa
Owarrants, which target Habibullah Agha, Minister of Education, and Neda Mohammad Nadeem, Minister of Higher Education, were issued under secrecy on September 9, 2025, a few months after the warrants issued against the Taliban's supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the President of the Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani.
The Court’s Instruction Chamber said in a statement that there were “reasonable reasons” to believe that “the four suspects were criminally responsible for ordering, inciting or requesting the practice of a crime against humanity, persecution (...) for gender reasons against girls, women and other people who did not conform to the Taliban’s policy on gender, gender identity or gender expression”.
Habibullah Agha and Neda Mohammed Nadeem are loyal to the supreme leader Akhundzada and play a key role in maintaining the ban on women and girls to continue their studies after the age of 12.
The alleged crimes have been committed in Afghan territory since the Taliban took power on 15 August 2021 and continued at least until 20 January 2025, the International Criminal Court said.