During their 18 months in power, the Taliban have deprived Afghan women and girls of their basic human rights, and of their dreams and hopes for the future. This has serious consequences for each individual, for families, as well as for the development of the Afghan nation. As a result of international sanctions and the Taliban’s own policies, the people of Afghanistan have fallen even deeper into poverty.
Women and girls are subjected to systematic discrimination, isolation, and violence without any form of legal or institutional protection, and they live their lives in fear and desperation. According to Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, this may constitute gender-based persecution and a crime against humanity.
The Taliban’s supreme leader has not given in to pressure, neither from the UN, nor from neighboring countries or the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) with regard to reopening access to secondary and tertiary education for women and girls. We must therefore be prepared for another year of exclusion of women and girls, as secondary schools and universities may not open their doors for the daughters of Afghanistan in late March. This will mark another setback in the struggle for the future of the Afghan nation, and another violation of the promises the Taliban gave when they seized power in August 2021.
We cannot silently accept the injustice and abuses Afghan women are subjected to by the Taliban, but our protest must not lead to further punishment for the Afghan people. We must protest against the human rights abuses committed by the Taliban by vowing to never give up the struggle for equal rights for all women and girls. Therefore, humanitarian aid must continue to support Afghan families. But in order to reach twenty million Afghan women and girls, and contribute to the sustainable improvement of human rights, human dignity, and the living conditions for Afghan families, more long-term development programs will be needed. It is long-term development programs that support and finance primary education for girls; hospitals and clinics where women work and offer lifesaving healthcare; and the education of female healthcare professionals offering healthcare services to women and children in rural and hard-to-reach communities.
Increased long-term development programs are also necessary to support climate adaptation within agriculture and natural resource management. Seventy per cent of Afghan women work in the agricultural sector. Climate adaptation is thus one of the most important initiatives we can support to improve the lives of women and families in rural communities throughout Afghanistan.
Our message to the women of Afghanistan on International Women’s Day is that we will never give up the struggle even though the situation for the Afghan people is desperate, our working conditions are increasingly difficult, and the Taliban leadership do not appear to change their reactionary and hostile policies. The women and girls of Afghanistan are not forgotten, and we are prepared to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them through continued long-term support and solidarity work until the struggle for equal rights has been won.
