Empowered Women’s Movement: Do Not Normalise the Deprivation of Afghan Girls
Ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power, the Movement of Empowered Afghan Women Residing in Iran says excluding women and girls from education, work, and social and political participation is a clear violation of human rights and a serious obstacle to peace and stability in Afghanistan.
Members of the movement, in videos sent to Zan News, held a protest action in Iran and described 15 August 2021 as one of the darkest turning points in Afghanistan’s modern history. They said it was the day when the lives of millions of citizens, particularly women and girls, entered a new phase of crisis and deprivation.
In a statement published on Thursday (6 August), the movement said that five years after the Taliban’s return, women and girls continue to face systematic policies of exclusion and discrimination and remain deprived of education, work, social and political participation, and many fundamental rights.
The statement said: “The rights of Afghan women are not negotiable. Girls’ right to education is not open to negotiation. Human dignity cannot be suspended.”
The Movement of Empowered Afghan Women called on the United Nations, governments and international organisations to abandon policies of silence, appeasement and normalisation of relations with the Taliban, and to take practical action to genuinely support the rights and freedoms of the Afghan people.
The movement also called on the international community not to turn the deprivation of an entire generation of Afghan girls into a “normal reality” and not to sacrifice the rights of women and girls for political interests in its engagement with the Taliban.
The statement stressed that any political process concerning Afghanistan’s future, without the genuine and meaningful participation of women and representatives of civil society, cannot lead to lasting and just peace.
The movement said that excluding half of society from fundamental areas of life is not only a violation of human rights, but also an obstacle to Afghanistan’s development, stability and future.
