By Érica Moreira and Shahrbanu Haidari
It’s nearly three years since the brutal restrictions on girls and women of Afghanistan began making national and international headlines. While international coverage and concern of their plight has waned, the restrictions continue – and the consequences are unrelenting.
Recently, the results of the Kankor university entrance exam were announced without the inclusion of a single girl’s name. It’s the second year the Kankor exam has been held without female students being permitted to sit it. The year before the Taliban seized power, a girl named Shamsia Alizada secured the top marks of all the students of Afghanistan. The contrast is horrifying and only time will tell just how deep the damage goes for all Afghanistan.
On June 30 and July 1, the UN convened the third Doha meeting to discuss Afghanistan with special envoys of many states and humanitarian aid organizations. In a move that shocked many women and people in Afghanistan, it was agreed with the Taliban that for them to attend the meeting, women would neither be invited nor would their rights be discussed. The meeting was instead to focus on drugs, the economy, and private business in Afghanistan.
During Doha III, the UN effectively set aside its vital mission of maintaining international peace and security. By acquiescing to Taliban demands and taking this topic off the agenda, the UN allowed the oppression continue.
The Taliban has systematically and institutionally restricted women’s and girls’ rights to education, work, freedom of movement, assembly, and speech, as well as their access to justice and healthcare, enforced with threats, violence, and other brutal measures.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are forbidden from receiving an education beyond the age of 12. It ranks at the bottom of the Global Index on Women’s Status. Women activists who have braved the threats to raise their voices against the Taliban regime have been kidnapped, raped as a form of punishment and to silence them, and tortured. Women from the Hazara and Tajik ethnic groups have particularly endured frequent forms of targeted dehumanization and abuse, including arbitrary detention.
How can we stay silent while the humanity of women is systematically erased in Afghanistan? We cannot. And from this fundamental realisation, the #EndGenderApartheid campaign was created.
In a joint effort between Associazione di Solidarietà Donne per le Donne and Politics4Her, we aim to raise global awareness, advocate for international condemnation, and advance the legal recognition of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity.
Our campaign not only aims to shed light on the human rights abuses endured by Afghan women and girls, but also plans to fight them.
As outlined in our Manifesto, we aim to increase global awareness through social media and collaborative advocacy efforts. We advocate for gender apartheid to be recognized as a crime against humanity to ensure international condemnation and to prompt decisive action from governments and international organizations. Lastly, our Manifesto provides several recommendations to the UN, its member states, civil society organizations, educational institutions and society.
The gender apartheid in Afghanistan should be a matter of global concern. The fight in Afghanistan is not one of solely Afghan women and girls, but rather is a fight against patriarchal roots as old as feminism – and, hence, should be the fight of all feminists.
Our core team, composed of eight hard-working women from different countries and backgrounds, reflects how intersectional this fight is, demonstrating that no distance or physical border diminishes the issue’s importance.
We are proud of steps we have taken already including a petition on Change.org that has gathered almost 600 signatures already. We have also launched our Ambassadors Programmes, which, in less than a week, have gathered over 100 applications from passionate advocates from the entire world, with more than 42 nationalities represented.
Currently, more than 30 ambassadors have joined our team and are working to #EndGenderApartheid. Divided between writing articles, creating engaging content, sharing their unique artistry and helping our outreach efforts, these brilliant individuals are ready to challenge and disrupt the system that remains passive about the norms being established in Afghanistan.
Our outreach efforts have already resulted in several scheduled meetings and ongoing partnerships. We have been able to contact civil society organizations, and internationally recognized non-governmental organizations, and we have reached several candidates in the European Parliament Elections about our current project.
We are keeping our community informed of more work being done through a monthly Newsletter to share our progress and highlight upcoming events and initiatives.
The #EndGenderApartheid campaign is both urgent and essential. Codifying and recognizing Gender Apartheid should constitute an international priority and will represent a significant landmark on the road to gender equality. Establishing a comprehensive legal framework that encompasses the depth of the deprivation of women’s rights in Afghanistan is vital. Until this is achieved, no true freedom or peace exists for any woman in the world.
