Three years after regaining control of Afghanistan, the Taliban have completed the construction of a system of gender apartheid. Having stripped women of their rights to work, education and leisure, and isolated them in their homes, they’re now attempting to silence them by banning their voices from public spaces. But Afghan women remain at the forefront of dangerous acts of defiance against the regime. They continue to campaign for the international community to recognise gender apartheid as a crime under international law and help bring about accountability and redress.

Three years after their comeback, the Taliban’s work appears complete. Afghanistan’s de facto rulers have finished building the system of gender apartheid they began to put in place on regaining power in August 2021. In August 2024, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued a 100-page morality edict regulating every detail of how people – particularly women – should behave in public. It bans music, requires men to grow beards, forbids the wearing of western clothes and prohibits the representation of people in any published material, including photographs.

As for women, it forbids them leaving their homes unless it’s urgent – an assessment presumably to be made by the ministry’s patrolling officers – and bans all women and girls after puberty from going out without a male guardian under any circumstances. The latest grim innovation is that women are no longer allowed to raise their voices in public, and even at home must make sure they’re not overheard by strangers. They can’t laugh or sing, even in private gatherings.

After stripping women of their rights to work, education and leisure, effectively erasing them from public life and isolating them in their homes, the Taliban are now trying to deprive them of what makes them human – the ability to express emotions and communicate with others.

But in a context of closed civic space, Afghan women are still the ones leading rare acts of rebellion. They have a key strength: they know the Taliban are afraid of them. The Taliban force women to hide their bodies, faces and voices because they find them seductive and bewitching. Their violent repression is an admission of weakness.

Closed civic space

Civic space in Afghanistan is closed. Many civil society organisations have had their licences revoked and assets confiscated, and what remains of civil society is severely restricted.

Activists face multiple forms of harassment and intimidation, arbitrary arrest and detention for criticising the Taliban or undertaking illegal activities such as providing underground schools for girls. Academics have been targeted for opposing the ban on women’s education, handing out books, criticising government policies or ‘collaborating with foreign media’.

Journalists and media outlets are under attack. The Afghanistan Journalists Centre has reported 89 incidents of violence against journalists and media workers in the first half of 2024, including 60 cases of threats and 29 arrests. The Taliban shut down 17 media outlets in Nangarhar province alone.

People who continue using banned social media sites have been arrested for their social media posts – and even for posts made by relatives abroad. At the same time, the Taliban and pro-Taliban groups are using fake social media accounts to spread disinformation and discredit critics and legitimate news sources.

According to a report by the human rights group Rawadari, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, the use of cruel and inhuman punishment and torture leading to death are on the rise. In the first half of 2024, at least 20 activists and human rights defenders, including nine women, were arrested and imprisoned on charges of propaganda against the Taliban. Torture in detention – including sexual torture of female detainees – appears to be commonplace, as a May 2024 report by the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan points out.

Women’s rights activist Lailuma Dawlatzai recently spoke about having her thighs slashed with knives and salt poured on her wounds while in a Taliban prison. Another prominent activist, Zarmina Paryani, revealed that during a 2022 spell in detention, Taliban members stripped her and other female detainees naked and took photos of them. Activist Zholia Parsi said that in 2023 she was held in solitary confinement in a damp room for almost two months and routinely interrogated and tortured to extract a confession. Zarifa Yaqubi recounted that she spent 41 days in prison for trying to organise a protest, and was tortured with electric shocks to make her falsely admit to taking money from foreigners to protest against the Taliban.

Resistance against the odds

Since day one, women have publicly challenged the Taliban. This took the Taliban by surprise, because they saw women as weak and underestimated their independence of spirit and determination.

Repression has clearly had a chilling effect, as evidenced by the lack of large-scale protests. But despite severe risks to their safety, Afghan women have continued resisting oppression. They’ve connected with each other and organised informally. They’ve pursued subtler forms of resistance, including by organising clandestine schools and delivering education via WhatsApp with the support of educators from the diaspora. And they’ve continued reporting on human rights violations and taking their advocacy to regional and international forums.

Voices from the frontline

Shaharzad Akbar is Executive Director of Rawadari, a human rights organisation founded by Afghans in exile.

 

One of the main obstacles we face is the complete closure of the physical spaces in which we used to work. We can’t hold programmes in schools, universities or mosques in Afghanistan, nor can we speak openly about human rights issues without putting people at serious risk. This severely limits our ability to have face-to-face conversations, which are crucial for mobilising support and building relationships.

Another major challenge is gathering and verifying information. In the past, when there was a violent attack, we would go to hospitals and other local facilities to get details. Now the Taliban have ordered these facilities not to share sensitive information. Families of victims and survivors are also often afraid to speak out, making it difficult for us to document serious violations such as disappearances. Even when we promise them full and strict confidentiality, families are too afraid to come forward.

It is also a challenge to protect our network in Afghanistan. Something as simple as compensating people for their communication or transportation costs could put them in danger. We can’t organise collective online training sessions because participants could reveal their identities to each other, increasing the risks.

On the advocacy front, our biggest challenge is the lack of political will. Afghanistan has largely fallen off the international agenda and many western countries, particularly the USA, are reluctant to get involved. There’s a general perception that Afghanistan is a failed intervention they want to move on from, which leads to a lack of investment in improving the situation, particularly in this election year. Global attention and resources have also shifted to other crises such as the war in Gaza.

This risks normalising the Taliban regime. Neighbouring countries, including China, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, are gradually developing relations with it. We fear that the Taliban regime, which is not yet officially recognised by any country, may eventually gain the international recognition it seeks despite its policy of gender apartheid.

States must be careful to avoid actions that could be seen as accepting the Taliban’s repressive policies and lead to their normalisation. For example, when they engage diplomatically with the Taliban, they must include women and civil society representatives in their delegations. It’s not about stopping engagement with the Taliban; it’s about ensuring every interaction sends a strong message about the importance of human rights, and specifically women’s rights.

People around the world can also help by urging their governments to take a principled approach in their engagement with the Taliban, prioritise women’s rights, hold the Taliban accountable and support education programmes, scholarships and initiatives for Afghan women and girls. They can also support organisations that campaign for their rights.

Even simple acts of solidarity like singing a song and reading a poem in support of Afghan women, if done collectively, can keep the international spotlight on Afghanistan, give hope to women and girls in Afghanistan and therefore make a difference.

 

This is an edited extract of our conversation with Shaharzad. Read the full interview here.

In late June 2024, the UN hosted a meeting with the Taliban, envoys from 25 countries and other stakeholders in Doha, Qatar, sparking an international outcry because, at the Taliban’s request, Afghan women and civil society weren’t invited. Rights activists criticised the UN’s approach, saying it gave legitimacy to the Taliban and betrayed its commitment to women’s rights, which weren’t on the agenda.

Ahead of the talks, Afghan women in the diaspora protested in several countries. In Afghanistan’s Takhar province, an independent women’s coalition held an indoor protest calling on the world to support Afghan people rather than their illegitimate rulers. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women issued a statement echoing their concerns, but to no avail.

Small protests, often indoors, have continued sporadically in response to the latest regulations. In defiance of the ban on using their voices in public, Afghan women began singing as a form of protest. They took to social media and posted clips of themselves singing, often ending with the phrase ‘my voice is not immodest’. People around the world joined in by sharing songs, poems and messages of solidarity.

Weeks later, more than 130 Afghan women took the risk of travelling to Albania for the All Afghan Women Summit, coming together to speak out about the Taliban’s human rights abuses and strategise on the response. They called for gender apartheid to be recognised as an international crime and sanctions to be imposed on those responsible.

The End Gender Apartheid campaign

Afghan women want the world to recognise Taliban rule for what it is: a regime of gender apartheid. They want this specific and extreme form of gender exclusion to be codified as a crime under international law to open pathways for the prosecution of those responsible. The 1973 UN Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid applies only to racial hierarchies, and they want to extend it to gender. To this end, on International Women’s Day in 2023, they and their Iranian counterparts launched the End Gender Apartheid campaign.

The campaign makes three main demands to states: amplify and focus on the experiences of women living under gender apartheid in Afghanistan and Iran, issue statements, resolutions and other policy responses condemning the gender apartheid regimes in Afghanistan and Iran, and interpret or expand the legal definition of apartheid under international and national law to include severe forms of institutionalised gender discrimination.

The campaign has an ally in the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, who in 2022 warned that the Taliban’s systematic eradication of the basic human rights of women and girls could constitute the crime against humanity of gender persecution, and expressed concern that the Taliban may be responsible for gender apartheid. The term was also used in a European Parliament resolution in October 2023.

Bennett’s May 2024 report provided an in-depth analysis of what it called ‘an institutionalised system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity and exclusion’. Bennett supported the call for gender apartheid to be recognised as a crime against humanity and advised states to avoid normalising or legitimising the Taliban’s repression. A few months later, when he criticised the ban on women’s voices, the Taliban banned him from entering the country.

A breakthrough came at the UN General Assembly in September, when it was announced that Australia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands will take the Taliban to the International Court of Justice under the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, which Afghanistan ratified in 2003. This would be the first time a state has taken another to court for gender discrimination.

Even if the Taliban refuse to recognise the tribunal’s authority, a negative ruling would act as a deterrent against states seeking to normalise diplomatic relations with the Taliban. This alone would be a valuable outcome for Afghan rights activists, particularly after the Doha meeting where the UN caved in to Taliban demands and brought the international community dangerously close to recognising their illegitimate regime.

International support needed

The world mustn’t place the entire burden of fighting the Taliban’s fanaticism on the shoulders of Afghan women. The international community must increase its support for Afghan civil society and women’s rights activists, including those in Afghanistan and the many organising in the diaspora. It should work collectively to implement the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, challenge the Taliban’s gender apartheid regime and hold those responsible to account.

The decision to take the Taliban to court is a significant first step – but further steps are needed. One would be to establish a dedicated accountability mechanism to work alongside the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan. Another would be to take a tougher stance against the Taliban regime, largely led by men under international sanctions for terrorism. And another would be to ensure the active participation of Afghan civil society and women activists in any conversation about the future of their country.

Meaningful change in Afghanistan can only come from Afghans themselves. Afghan women know this well and have amply demonstrated their determination to fight to make it happen. But they need the full support of the international community if they are to have any chance of effectively reclaiming their rights and futures.

OUR CALLS FOR ACTION

  • States must make aid to Afghanistan conditional on guarantees of upholding fundamental rights, including the rights of women.
  • The international community must establish a monitoring mechanism to hold the Taliban accountable.
  • The international community should refrain from engaging with the Taliban on terms that exclude Afghan civil society and women from the conversation.

For interviews or more information, please contact research@civicus.org

Cover photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images