Two years after the Taliban invaded Kabul following the withdrawal of US troops and their allies, the United Nations believes Afghans may be victims of “gender apartheid,” a harsh term denoting ruthless harassment and the progressive restriction of most basic rights defined for simple reasons to be a woman.
“Women and girls in Afghanistan experience severe discrimination that could amount to gender-based persecution, which constitutes a crime against humanity and could be termed gender apartheid. “The de facto authorities appear to be governing with systematic discrimination, with the intention of subjecting women and girls to total domination,” said Richard Bennett, special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, who visited the country in April and May. to submit a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in July.
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“Nowhere else on the planet has there been such a widespread, systematic and global attack on the rights of women and girls as in Afghanistan,” added Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, Chair of the Working Group Against Discrimination, at the launch of the report and girls and co-author of the study.
Already between 1996 and 2001, during the first Taliban regime, Afghan women’s rights declined alarmingly. But from 2001 to two years ago, women had reclaimed their place in society practically across the country, with the exception of the more traditional rural areas. Women’s rights were also recognized in the 2004 Constitution and the 2009 Elimination of Violence Against Women Act.
Today, Afghanistan ranks last (170th) in the latest Women’s Global Peace and Security Index compiled by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the Oslo Peace Research Institute (PRIO). The acronym is in English. According to a joint statement by several international NGOs released this week, the Taliban have issued 75 decrees since 2021 restricting women’s participation in public life.
Despite everything, there are Afghans who risk their lives every day to rebel against this disenfranchisement: secretly give lessons, secretly provide legal advice to other women, report on what is happening in the country or protest on the streets.
A woman in a burqa walks down a street in Kabul on August 14. SAMIULLAH POPAL (EFE)
Here are some of the reasons for the United Nations’ claim of “gender apartheid” in Afghanistan:
Why are women denied the right to study?
At present, no girl over the age of 12 can go to school or university in Afghanistan. The UN emphasizes that Afghanistan is “the only country in the world” where this is happening. First, the Taliban closed the doors of secondary schools to women, and in December 2022, they were banned from attending universities. Pictures of students walking home crying, books in hand, went around the world and sparked international condemnation, but nothing changed. The UN is denouncing the fact that in several provinces there are de facto authorities that forbid girls from the age of 10 to go to school.
In their first months in power, the fundamentalists asserted that the ban was only temporary, arguing that they were creating a “proper environment” in the educational centers, that is, guaranteeing strict gender segregation. The argument sounded like a mere pretext, because boys and girls were already sitting separately in the institutes.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 80% of Afghan school-age girls and young women – approximately 2.5 million people – are currently excluded from education. Almost 30% of Afghan girls have never attended primary school. “The blatant violations of the fundamental right to access quality education will have lifelong consequences for Afghan women,” warns the UN.
In the face of this ban, secret schools have sprung up posing as Koran learning centers for girls, where volunteer teachers continue to teach hundreds of girls history, grammar or mathematics.
Because the doors to the world of work are closed to them
In these two years, Afghan women have disappeared overnight from most workplaces: courts, press, shops, humanitarian organizations… Officially, the Taliban also refer to the need for a “right environment” so that they can continue to practice.
In late 2022, the fundamentalists forced all NGOs to halt employment of the more than 50,000 Afghan workers on the grounds that they had received “serious complaints” against some of the workers who failed to respect the strict Islamic dress code demanded by the Taliban to impose in April of that year local UN employees were banned from working with a few exceptions, such as in the health sector. “You need women to help women,” complained a spokesman for the facility, which employs around 3,300 Afghans.
Although this veto violates its fundamental principles, the United Nations has decided to remain present in Afghanistan and to maintain the humanitarian aid on which more than 28 million Afghans, two-thirds of the population, depend.
Because they don’t have any free time
Women cannot dress however they want, they have to cover themselves and in many cases wear a burqa, a tunic that covers them completely. In addition, they must almost always be accompanied by a male relative and are not eligible for almost any pastime, such as going to the park or playing sports. Among the last places of relaxation for women were hairdressing and beauty salons, but they were ordered to close at the end of July. Thousands of Afghans who worked in these places were also deprived of their livelihoods.
This oppressive environment affects the mental health of women and girls, and there are reports of increased cases of depression and suicide, particularly among adolescent girls, the UN report said.
Afghan refugees in Pakistan demonstrate against the Taliban in Islamabad on August 15. SOHAIL SHAHZAD (EFE)
Because they are denied the right to health
The restrictions on women also limit their access to health care, with serious consequences for their health, social and reproductive rights in a country where the health system has already struggled due to poverty and years of war.
“As girls and women can only be cared for by female doctors, there is a real risk of multiple preventable deaths that could amount to femicide unless restrictions (work and exercise) are lifted quickly,” the UN study said.
Women also have limited access to contraception. There were Taliban who believed these methods violated Sharia or Islamic law, and others “have prevented the distribution of contraceptives by humanitarian workers,” according to the United Nations.
Because they remain legally unprotected
All of these restrictions have had the counter-effect of an increase in spousal and domestic violence against women and girls, in a country where, according to Statistics Bureau, as early as 2017 more than 50% of Afghans between the ages of 15 and 49 have had it at least once in their lives suffered gender-based violence. Today, women are more vulnerable than ever. “The lack of a clear and predictable legal system in Afghanistan contributes to the persistence of violence against women and the lack of accountability for the perpetrators,” the UN laments in its report.
The Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women has been abolished, the judges responsible for such cases can no longer work and religious leaders who have no experience in the matter have been appointed in their place. There are also no female lawyers, since the female lawyers could not extend their professional license.
Among the testimonies collected by the United Nations are several Afghans who wanted a divorce after suffering abuse and told the court sentences like “You shouldn’t complain”, “You probably deserve to be beaten” or “These matters should stay in family” heard bullet”. Fundamentalists have also instituted the use of cruel and undignified corporal punishment such as stoning and flogging of women, in clear violation of international human rights standards.
In addition, organizations such as Amnesty International have denounced a worrying rise in child marriage. The tragic humanitarian situation means that many families have to sell their daughter or let her starve to death.
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