The World Forgot Women and Children Living Under Taliban Oppression in Afghanistan for 3 Years
August15,2024
As the Taliban, one of the most virulently misogynistic political Islamist formations known, continues to persecute women and children in Afghanistan, the world states turn a blind eye. No state has officially recognized the Taliban, which was allowed to regain sovereignty as of August 15, 2021 following 20 years of US control. However, many states, including Turkey, have been holding informal meetings with Taliban officials, giving the Taliban regimede factolegitimacy.
Last July, Taliban officials were invited by United Nations officials to talks in Doha. Taliban representatives refused to talk about human rights and choosing instead economic issues, including support for the private sector in Afghanistan and counternarcotics, which were among the meeting agenda items proposed by UN representatives.
As the Women’s Platform for Equality, Turkey (EŞİK), we have followed the increase and intensification of gender-based persecution that we highlighted in the information note we crafted last year, which drew on reports from international humanitarian aid and human rights organizations. The positions of states that until recently listed the Taliban as terrorist but now engage the group under the guise of “keeping it under control”, “engaging the international community”, “ensuring stability in the region” while merely “making recommendations [to them] on women's rights”, is a dirty and hypocritical patriarchal cooperation.
In a statement released on 14 August 2024, several United Nations Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights echoed this statement and issued a stern warning, urging the international community not to normalize the Taliban'sde factorule in Afghanistan. The Special Rapporteurs highlighted the deterioration of human rights under Taliban, in particular the systematic repression and crimes against humanity committed against women and girls. “The situation continues to deteriorate and stronger and more effective international action is needed immediately,” the statement said, noting that the Taliban have institutionalizedgender apartheid, with more than 85 edicts targeting women and girls, and completely eradicating women from the public sphere, while the international community has ignored the situation as an ‘internal matter’.
The UN Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights also cited arbitrary arrests, killings, enforced disappearances and torture of religious and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people, human rights defenders and marginalized groups in Afghanistan, and called on the International Criminal Court to step up its ongoing investigation into crimes committed in Afghanistan. They called for legal action against the Taliban at the International Court of Justice.
Women resist in Afghanistan despite the worst sexist persecution of the century
The practices that have been taking place in Afghanistan for the past three years and have escalated in the last year, as reported in the international press and by human rights observers, demand the world's attention and urgent and effective measures: The Taliban's forcing divorced women to remarry their ex-husbands by overturning divorce decrees issued by the courts before Taliban’s take-over; the arrest and torture of women buying contraceptives and protesting women and their families; the forced marriage of girls as young as 9 years old; and gang rapes are just a few examples of sexist atrocities.
Today, as Afghanistan struggles with deep poverty, girls and women pay the heaviest price for this poverty. Deprived of education and employment, girls are forced into early marriages and in a sense “sold” in this environment of poverty. Depression and suicide cases are a very serious concern. A mother or baby dies every two hours due to inadequate health services. Nevertheless, women who resist at the cost of their lives continue to educate their daughters whom they cannot send to school.
One of the women's groups resisting in Afghanistan is the Purple Saturday Movement, which has nearly 1000 members. In a statement, activists of the Purple Saturday Movement say that humanitarian aid sent to Afghanistan has been confiscated by the Taliban and that the $40 million in weekly US aid is being spent on bonuses, houses and cars for Taliban cadres instead of alleviating hunger and poverty, which affect more than 85 percent of the population. The statement also says that the Taliban have spent international aid on radical Islamist terrorist groups, opening numerous jihad schools to strengthen their suicide squads and expand their cross-border operations.
Afghanistan is the most painful example of how a mentality that has never seen the light of day can create human tragedy and sexist slaughter. Cruelty to a human being, a living creature, cannot be justified by any excuse. Wherever we live on earth the pain of violence stemming from inequality and the power of resistance and solidarity are the same.
From Palestine to Ukraine, from Turkey to Afghanistan; Long Live Women's Solidarity!
The World Forgot Women and Children Living Under Taliban Oppression in Afghanistan for 3 Years
As the Taliban, one of the most virulently misogynistic political Islamist formations known, continues to persecute women and children in Afghanistan, the world states turn a blind eye. No state has officially recognized the Taliban, which was allowed to regain sovereignty as of August 15, 2021 following 20 years of US control. However, many states, including Turkey, have been holding informal meetings with Taliban officials, giving the Taliban regimede factolegitimacy.
Last July, Taliban officials were invited by United Nations officials to talks in Doha. Taliban representatives refused to talk about human rights and choosing instead economic issues, including support for the private sector in Afghanistan and counternarcotics, which were among the meeting agenda items proposed by UN representatives.
As the Women’s Platform for Equality, Turkey (EŞİK), we have followed the increase and intensification of gender-based persecution that we highlighted in the information note we crafted last year, which drew on reports from international humanitarian aid and human rights organizations. The positions of states that until recently listed the Taliban as terrorist but now engage the group under the guise of “keeping it under control”, “engaging the international community”, “ensuring stability in the region” while merely “making recommendations [to them] on women's rights”, is a dirty and hypocritical patriarchal cooperation.
In a statement released on 14 August 2024, several United Nations Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights echoed this statement and issued a stern warning, urging the international community not to normalize the Taliban'sde factorule in Afghanistan. The Special Rapporteurs highlighted the deterioration of human rights under Taliban, in particular the systematic repression and crimes against humanity committed against women and girls. “The situation continues to deteriorate and stronger and more effective international action is needed immediately,” the statement said, noting that the Taliban have institutionalizedgender apartheid, with more than 85 edicts targeting women and girls, and completely eradicating women from the public sphere, while the international community has ignored the situation as an ‘internal matter’.
The UN Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights also cited arbitrary arrests, killings, enforced disappearances and torture of religious and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people, human rights defenders and marginalized groups in Afghanistan, and called on the International Criminal Court to step up its ongoing investigation into crimes committed in Afghanistan. They called for legal action against the Taliban at the International Court of Justice.
Women resist in Afghanistan despite the worst sexist persecution of the century
The practices that have been taking place in Afghanistan for the past three years and have escalated in the last year, as reported in the international press and by human rights observers, demand the world's attention and urgent and effective measures: The Taliban's forcing divorced women to remarry their ex-husbands by overturning divorce decrees issued by the courts before Taliban’s take-over; the arrest and torture of women buying contraceptives and protesting women and their families; the forced marriage of girls as young as 9 years old; and gang rapes are just a few examples of sexist atrocities.
Today, as Afghanistan struggles with deep poverty, girls and women pay the heaviest price for this poverty. Deprived of education and employment, girls are forced into early marriages and in a sense “sold” in this environment of poverty. Depression and suicide cases are a very serious concern. A mother or baby dies every two hours due to inadequate health services. Nevertheless, women who resist at the cost of their lives continue to educate their daughters whom they cannot send to school.
One of the women's groups resisting in Afghanistan is the Purple Saturday Movement, which has nearly 1000 members. In a statement, activists of the Purple Saturday Movement say that humanitarian aid sent to Afghanistan has been confiscated by the Taliban and that the $40 million in weekly US aid is being spent on bonuses, houses and cars for Taliban cadres instead of alleviating hunger and poverty, which affect more than 85 percent of the population. The statement also says that the Taliban have spent international aid on radical Islamist terrorist groups, opening numerous jihad schools to strengthen their suicide squads and expand their cross-border operations.
Afghanistan is the most painful example of how a mentality that has never seen the light of day can create human tragedy and sexist slaughter. Cruelty to a human being, a living creature, cannot be justified by any excuse. Wherever we live on earth the pain of violence stemming from inequality and the power of resistance and solidarity are the same.
From Palestine to Ukraine, from Turkey to Afghanistan; Long Live Women's Solidarity!