On Tuesday, as the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly started, a group of female Afghan politicians, activists, academics, and journalists said in a petition that “voices, and perspectives of Afghan women are largely missing” from the UN General Assembly in New York.
50 Afghan women, including women activists who led recent protests against the Taliban, have called on the international community to “either stand by Afghan women or fail women and women’s rights everywhere.”
Below is the details of the letter:
As the world meets for the 77th time at the United Nations General Assembly, the priorities, voices and perspectives of women of Afghanistan are missing.
The General Assembly takes place every year, bringing world leaders, civil society, academia, and the private sector together to find solutions for the world’s most pressing problems. Afghanistan is currently experiencing the collapse of its economy, unprecedented levels of food insecurity and a human right, specifically women’s rights crisis, unlike any other in the world.
Since 15 August 2021, around 40 decrees have been issued by the Taliban regulating women’s bodies, attire, and movement, stripping them of their basic human rights and liberties. Women have no right to political participation, girls are banned from attending school past the sixth grade, and women are barred from working most jobs outside the home. They are also banned from travelling long distances without a male chaperone and are increasingly being denied access to essential services. All laws protecting women, including the ending violence against women law, are suspended and women have lost every means of access to justice. Women of Afghanistan have been taking to streets since the fall of Kabul to voice their opposition to the Taliban. Women protestors are facing arbitrary arrest, torture and even death in their brave actions and resistance.
As women in Afghanistan are grappling with the world’s gravest women’s rights crisis, they are alone. This year, at the 77th edition of the General Assembly, taking place September 13 to 27 in New York, the priorities, voices, and perspectives of Afghan women are largely missing.
What it actually means in practice that no Afghan woman is represented at the UNGA this year is that the UN and the world are turning a blind eye to the world’s worst human rights crisis, which calls into question the commitment to standing up for human rights globally. The lack of attention to the rights of Afghan women and girls undermines the very foundation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that entitles everyone to equal protection against any form of discrimination. Statements of concern and verbal commitments to women’s rights in Afghanistan are not enough anymore when it does not come with any action. We need the international community to be as brave and bold as the Afghan women living inside the country are. We need the international community to stand up to the values they claim to represent. And we need the international community to do this now.
In a recent consultation process held with women inside the country, 92% Afghan women consulted stated that their lives have significantly changed since August 2021. The world is shrinking on Afghan women every day but they are not giving up against all odds. Afghan women have no space in their homes, in their workplace, in their classrooms, no place in their governments, and this year, they have no space at the United Nations General Assembly – a forum that was designed to bring everyone together and fix some of the world’s most complex crises.
It is time for the international community to ascertain its value toward human rights protection and for its leaders to listen to the voices of women of Afghanistan. We appeal to the United Nations and the Security Council to hold high level meetings to discuss the situation in Afghanistan for what it is: Gender Apartheid. A standalone resolution on labelling Taliban’s regime as Gender Apartheid can effectively keep women of Afghanistan a priority globally.
Even when we are not on the front pages and new crises capture the world’s attention, Afghan women will still be chanting, and will still be marching. Not just for themselves, but for every woman who has struggled and yearned to live a life of her own choosing. The international community has a choice to make, and one they must make soon. Either stand by Afghan women or fail women and women’s rights everywhere.
