Has the world forgotten Afghan women?

The world has marked some grim anniversaries in the last few weeks: the 25^th anniversary of 9/11, the terror attack on the United States which changed so much, and, many feel, was a catalyst to creating a darker, more unstable world.

Then there was the third anniversary of October 7, and the brutal Hamas attack on Israel. The families who lost loved ones on that day know no peace, neither do the families in Gaza, where an estimated 70,000 people have been killed, and much of the population now live in tents or ruined buildings.

There are two other anniversaries we have not been paying quite so much attention to: it is 25 years since the Taliban was ousted from power in Afghanistan. The fall was triggered by 9/11, when the United States, backed by its NATO allies, attacked Afghanistan because it was harbouring Al Qaida.

And it’s five years since the US and NATO left Afghanistan, and the Taliban came back. Five years in which, decree by decree, and edict by edict, Afghan women are being, UN agencies warn ‘erased from public life.’

The laws restricting women include excluding them from secondary education, from leaving their home or area without a male guardian, from most work outside the home, even from going to public parks.

“As a former UN Special Rapporteur, as a longtime human rights lawyer, I am truly shocked by the deteriorating human rights situation on the ground in Afghanistan, especially for women and girls,” says Karima Bennoune, professor of international law at Michigan University.

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Gender apartheid

Bennoune is one of our guests on Inside Geneva this week, where she explains why she would like an official, legal recognition that what is happening in Afghanistan is gender apartheid.

She believes the term is the best reflection of the kind of “systematised, institutionalised, extreme form of discrimination,” that Afghan women are being subjected to. In August, Bennoune and more than 60 international lawyers and human rights experts launched an international declaration, calling for gender apartheid to be officially codified as a crime against humanity.

Doing so, Bennoune argues, “promotes accountability for the perpetrators,” and also shows that  “the entire international community, states, international organizations have obligations to take effective action to end the practice of gender apartheid.”

The declaration is supported by a number of Afghan human rights defenders, among them Zarqa Yaftali, who also joins us on Inside Geneva. Yaftali is now living in exile in Canada, from where she continues to support education for Afghan women and girls through her Women and Children Legal Research Foundation.

‘‘Afghanistan is the worst country right now in the world for woman,” she tells me. “And when there is systematic discrimination, for sure we are calling it gender apartheid. Woman don’t have the right to work, they don’t have the right to education, they don’t have the right to political participation, they don’t have the right to social participation.”

Not everyone agrees

But not everyone is comfortable with the term gender apartheid. Diplomats in Geneva regularly express outrage about the treatment of Afghan women and girls; the EU successfully drove a resolution through the UN human rights council setting up an independent mechanism to record violations in Afghanistan, with a view to future prosecutions.

But when asked about gender apartheid, the same diplomats often become vague and non-committal. One reason could be the challenge of finding a clear definition of the term under international law, another, more cynical, could be that recognising gender apartheid might lead to having to grant more asylum requests.

Meanwhile some human rights activists argue there are multiple ways of supporting Afghan women. A formal recognition of gender apartheid could be one way, Fereshta Abbasi of Human Rights Watch tells Inside Geneva, but there are others.

Abbasi has just written a fascinating articleExternal link published on the webiste of Foreign Policy in Focus, a think tank, analysing the divisions within the Taliban itself, and arguing that the international community should do more to exploit those divisions. The repressive laws coming from Afghanistan’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, are, she tells me, being interpreted in very different ways across the country.

“Local authorities choose whether or not to implement a decree, or just close their eyes on the implementation of that decree”, she says. “That could be exploited by holding some of them accountable, by making sure that the world is watching them.”

The top brass in Kabul may be impervious to international scrutiny, Abbasi believes (although the International Court has just issued arrest warrants for four of them), but local officials, knowing that the UN is now collecting evidence of possible international crimes, will be more careful.

“If a commander or if a local authority in Afghanistan hears that there is a mechanism that is currently identifying perpetrators, he’s going to be careful. He will think about his future. He will think about the future of his children, and he will make sure that he’s not on that list. That’s how we can support and protect Afghan women.”

But Abbasi does not reject the idea of a formal recognition of gender apartheid. Many Afghan women want that, she points out, and they above all should be listened to.

Forgotten because they are women?

All three of our guests on Inside Geneva this week fear that despite efforts by the UN (although the investigative mechanism is not fully funded), the repression of Afghan women is not getting the attention it deserves.

In a world where powerful countries, notably the United States, are no longer prioritising gender equality, or support for women’s rights, could it be that the international community sees the repression of women as somehow less significant than the repression of a particular community or ethnic group? Both Bennoune and Abbasi warn that neglecting women in Afghanistan sends a dangerous signal.

“What’s happening in Afghanistan is not going to stay in Afghanistan” says Abbasi. “What is happening in Afghanistan is not only an attack on the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, it is an attack on the rights of women and girls globally. It sends the message to other authoritarian regimes around the world that you can get away with whatever you do in your country.”

“The failure to effectively support the work against gender apartheid will also threaten the whole international framework that guarantees women’s rights everywhere,” adds Bennoune. “What happens in Afghanistan matters inherently, but it also will not stay there. And if the international community hasn’t learned that lesson yet, we have a much bigger problem.”

Listen to the whole fascinating discussion on Inside Geneva!

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