A women’s rally calling on the Taliban to ensure equal rights in the country, Kabul, 2021. At the annual UN women’s rights megaconference underway through March 21, the Women’s Forum on Afghanistan asks Saudi Arabia, as chair of the gathering, to help shift the Taliban’s repression of Afghan females to a “positive, life-affirming status in their country,” the essayists write. ANADOLU AGENCY
As the United Nations member states gather in New York City to mark the 69th session of the annual conference on women’s rights, the condition of women and girls remains stark under the Taliban’s gender apartheid rule in Afghanistan.
Three and a half years since the return of the Taliban to power, they have imposed more than 100 edicts restricting every aspect of the private and public life of women and girls. Women are not allowed to access education, employment and basic freedoms, as recent edicts prohibit them from speaking in public.
In a recent consultation with diverse women from different provinces of Afghanistan, the mental health of women and girls is turning into a new crisis. Women are suffering from widespread psychological distress, depression, trauma and even an increase in instances of self-harm and suicide. The absence of education, employment and essential freedoms has left many women despairing, with limited access to mental health services.
It is deeply concerning what the future holds for Afghan women and girls under the Taliban’s oppressive rule, raising urgent questions about how global gender equality frameworks can intervene to protect and empower them.
The annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meetings play a leading role in reviewing progress and assessing challenges in implementing the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, especially as it marks its 30th year. Given the dire situation of Afghan women and girls — the worst in the world today — the CSW can play a critical role in mobilizing both short- and long-term meaningful support to address their urgent needs and restore their fundamental rights.
Saudi Arabia, as chair of the CSW bureau, can play a crucial role in shifting the Taliban’s repression of women and girls to a positive, life-affirming status in their country.
Principled engagement
Hundreds of diplomatic engagements have been held with the Taliban regime, mainly through the UN, regional countries and Western governments, appeasing the Taliban with the hope to reverse their gender policies. However, not a single edict has been taken back. The Taliban have been around for more than three decades, yet little has been studied about how their gender ideology is used as a political tool to govern.
The current approach of unconditional engagement has not worked. The UN bodies, along with regional and international state and nonstate actors, must uphold principled engagement with the Taliban on all matters, including humanitarian aid, security and development. Principled engagement with the Taliban means maintaining dialogue but ensuring that women’s and girls’ rights remain non-negotiable while using all available leverage — diplomatic, economic, security and humanitarian — to push for tangible improvements in their lives.
This approach prioritizes accountability, conditionality and the voices of Afghan women in shaping all interactions with the Taliban.
Muslim-majority countries need to step up to challenge the Taliban’s treatment of women in Afghanistan, which is being justified under the guise of religion while misrepresenting Islam. Saudi Arabia, as the leader of the 69th session of the CSW and an influential regional country, must especially act, since it may have more leverage over the Taliban on issues of women’s rights than other countries to exert global pressure from the Mideast.
The Saudis’ opportunity and obligation as bureau chair must be used to discuss the dire status of women while exploring ways to support women and girls in Afghanistan politically, economically and socially now and in the future.
Accountability tool
The brave Afghan women protesting inside their country and the advocacy of exiled Afghan women focusing on women and girls have led to initiatives to hold the Taliban accountable under international law.
Several countries, including Canada, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands, have announced plans to initiate legal proceedings against the Taliban at the International Court of Justice for violations of women’s rights under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
In another initiative, Afghan women and international human rights defenders are advocating for the amendments to the Rome Statute under the jurisdiction of International Criminal Court to recognize gender apartheid as a crime against humanity.
The 45 member states of the CSW must align and support Afghan women in these legal proceedings to strengthen the commission’s influence in responding to accountability for gender oppression.
The extreme acts of gender-based violence and crimes against women and girls by the Taliban must not become an exception to exempt them from these legal mechanisms. Countries sitting on important bodies, such as the CSW, have critical responsibilities to discuss, take persuasive actions and provide support. Such moves can influence the political agency of Afghan women, compel a reassessment of the Taliban’s gender policies and open negotiations that center women’s rights.
While long-term political change and legal accountability are crucial, the immediate need for short-term support for Afghan women and girls is even more urgent. More than 1,200 days have passed since girls were banned from attending school, with an uncertain future marked by over a hundred severe restrictions regulating every aspect of women’s lives in at home and in public.
Practical help
Practical, short-term support is critical not only for demonstrating solidarity with Afghan women but also for saving lives, providing essential education for the next generation of Afghan women and empowering future political leaders to push for enduring change.
As chair of the CSW and a leading country in the region and the Islamic world, Saudi Arabia can play a pivotal role in supporting Afghan women’s education in the region. More than 5.5 million Afghan girls are barred from secondary school, and 21,000 female university students lack access to higher education. The chair should ask states and nonstates, especially Islamic countries in the region, to provide scholarships and exchange programs for Afghan girls. This will also advance Sustainable Development Goal 4: inclusive and quality education for all.
Furthermore, supporting economic empowerment of Afghan women through dedicated development and humanitarian funding, especially using UN agencies, can lead to financial independence for women. Economic investment in women has been overlooked in Afghanistan, but it is essential for lifting the dire situation of women and enhancing women’s agency from their households to communities and beyond.
As members of the Women’s Forum on Afghanistan, we believe that a unified international stance on holding the Taliban accountable can pressure the group to either evolve as an extreme organization in power or to shift power from the current hardliners and open Afghanistan to a necessary political process for a meaningful, inclusive and endurable peace.
This is an opinion essay.
We welcome your comments on this article. What are your thoughts on Afghan women's fight for freedom?
Habiba Sarabi is the former governor of Bamyan Province, the first woman to be appointed governor of any Afghan province. She also served as Afghanistan’s Minister for Women’s Affairs. She now serves on the steering committee of the Women’s Forum on Afghanistan.
Fawzia Koofi
Fawzia Koofi is an Afghan politician, writer and women’s rights activist. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Women’s Forum on Afghanistan. Originally from Badakhshan Province, Koofi was a member of the Afghan delegation negotiating peace with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar. She is a former deputy speaker of Parliament in Kabul and a former vice president of the National Assembly.
Farkhonde Akbari is a member of the Women’s Forum on Afghanistan.