Afghan Women Under Four Years of Taliban Rule: “Four Years of Oppression, Fear, and Injustice”

Sent to Zan TV

The Afghanistan Women’s Political Participation Network, on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the Taliban regime’s return to power, in a statement described this day as a “black day” in the country’s history, saying that the past four years have brought the people of Afghanistan nothing but “oppression, fear, poverty, forced displacement, killing, imprisonment, torture, rape, humiliation, and injustice.”

The statement reads, “This is the day when the international community, with indifference, handed over the fate of 36 million citizens of Afghanistan to a terrorist group. The darkness of ignorance and extremism cast its shadow over the country, shattered hopes, and imposed a future full of suffering on the people.”

The network says that in these four years, the Taliban have systematically removed women from social, political, and educational life, and by issuing misogynistic decrees, have imposed an open gender apartheid on the country.

The Afghanistan Women’s Political Participation Network accused the international community of a “shameful compromise” with the Taliban, stating, “In these four years, the international community not only failed to stand with the women and people of Afghanistan, but by attempting to normalize relations and engage politically with the Taliban, once again sacrificed the innocent people of Afghanistan for its political interests.”

The network has called for the Taliban’s crimes to be recognized as “gender apartheid” and for the group’s leaders to be subjected to sanctions and international prosecution. It has also urged the international community not to recognize or cooperate with the Taliban, and for the United Nations and international organizations to stand with the people of Afghanistan, not with human rights violators.

Members of the network stressed, “We, the women of Afghanistan, have never forgotten those who gave their lives for freedom. We will stand and fight until we achieve freedom, justice, and equality.”