KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban rulers and other officials gathered at Afghanistan’s traditional Loya Jirga assembly hall on Saturday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of their return to power, touting having brought stability and an end to conflict after decades of upheaval.

A top United Nations official, however, warned of a grave human rights crisis in the country where girls above the age of 12 are denied an education.

The Taliban seized power on Aug. 15, 2021, as the U.S. and other NATO troops withdrew following a costly two-decade war. The U.S. withdrawal led to chaos at Kabul airport as crowds of people tried to flee the country in desperation.

Soon after taking power, the Taliban administration imposed a ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and later also banned higher education for women, despite having pledged before the takeover that women would be allowed access to education, employment and public participation.

Women have also been banned from public spaces such as gyms and parks, from taking part in sports and traveling to distant locations without a male guardian.

Taliban hails ‘liberation’ from American forces

At the Loya Jirga, high-ranking officials were joined by some foreign representatives and thousands of ordinary citizens for speeches marking what they said was Afghanistan's liberation from American forces.

“We pray to Almighty God to forever protect our homeland from occupation, aggression, wars, and insecurity, and to enable our people to enjoy peace, tranquility, and prosperity under the auspices of the Sharia-based government,” the Taliban government’s deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said during the ceremony.

There were no women present.

Five years on, the Taliban government remains isolated internationally, with Russia being the only country to have recognized it formally.

Top Taliban official calls for more international engagement

Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said that countries that have engaged with the administration have gained from doing so and called on others that have not established contacts to reconsider their approach.

“Those that engaged and interacted with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan benefited,” he said. “As for the countries that have not engaged with the Islamic Emirate, let them state what they have gained or what benefit they have derived.”

“They should move towards a policy of engagement and mutual interaction,” he said.

Celebrations held under tight security

In Kabul, men took to the squares carrying Taliban flags and chanting slogans in support of the government. Convoys of vehicles wound their way through the city, causing traffic jams.

Security was tight, with heavy Taliban security force presence and several check points on a main road leading to the Loya Jirga.

Celebrations were also held in provinces across Afghanistan, where Taliban flags and posters emblazoned with slogans in praise of the Taliban’s return to power were displayed along major roads and marketplaces.

In a video message, Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, said the country was undergoing a deep human rights crisis.

UN says human rights situation has ‘dramatically’ deteriorated

“While the era of war has ended, it’s questionable whether there’s real peace, and the human rights situation has steadily deteriorated, most dramatically for women and girls,” Bennett said. “My mandate has concluded that this system amounts to the crime against humanity of gender persecution.”

“The crisis extends well beyond gender discrimination, even beyond gender apartheid,” he continued. “Across Afghanistan we continue to document arbitrary arrests, torture and ill treatment, extrajudicial killings, corporal punishment, enforced disappearances, restrictions on freedom of expression, attacks on journalists and human rights defenders, persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, discrimination against LGBT plus persons, and the reduction of civic space.”

Bennett warned the international community against “normalizing” the Taliban’s policies, saying it would legitimize the discrimination and tell “victims their suffering is negotiable.”

In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi, deputy minister in the Taliban government for broadcasting at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said despite “challenges and difficulties” the administration has in the past five years delivered security, infrastructure and created jobs.

2.4 million girls excluded from secondary education

Farahi, when asked, did not address the issue of the education of girls and women but said “the level of investment made in universities surpasses anything seen in the past."

The U.N. agency on education and culture, UNESCO, estimates that some 2.4 million girls have been excluded from secondary education. The U.N. World Food Program said child malnutrition has reached critical levels in a third of Afghanistan’s provinces and is expected to worsen due to funding shortfalls.

The world body’s agency on women’s rights, U.N. Women, said this week that women and girls are facing the harshest restriction in the world and that the bans are damaging Afghanistan’s future, with the lack of teachers, doctors, nurses and midwives threatening the country’s social and economic foundations.

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Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.