Inside Geneva: what justice means for women in Afghanistan

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In August 2021, the Taliban took back control in Afghanistan. Women face unprecedented repression.

Inside Geneva

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They can’t go to school or work; public parks are banned to them; they are not allowed to speak or sing too loudly. Are we turning away?

“This is the time for the international community and for other countries, especially the EU, to step in and to make sure they respond to the crisis in Afghanistan and stand with the women of Afghanistan and to do everything they can to protect their rights,” says Fereshta Abbasi, from Human Rights Watch.

Diplomats in Geneva have backed a powerful UN fact-finding mission for Afghanistan.

“As an ambassador, and as a woman, [I know that] women have fought for decades if not centuries for their rights, and I also personally do not want to see a back-peddling on those rights that we, and generations of brave women before us, have fought for for so long,” says Deike Potzel, EU Ambassador to the UN in Geneva.

+ UN in Geneva sets up investigative mechanism on Afghanistan

Women inside Afghanistan need to know there is support.

“Women and girls in Afghanistan resist in ways that don’t form a single movement. It’s about 1,000 quiet and important uprisings and day-to-day revolutions: a resistance that is fierce and creative to show that they exist and that they will never accept that kind of domination,” says Sahar Fetrat, an Afghan campaigner for women’s rights.

The fact-finding mission can gather evidence and hold Afghanistan’s government and individual Taliban leaders to account. But ordinary women across Europe can help too.

“Here in Europe, in Geneva, we have the wonderful opportunity to actually make our voices heard and to be heard. So use that chance, get engaged. Open your eyes and then do something,” says Potzel.

Join some inspiring women talking to Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva.

Find out more about the ‘Inside Geneva’ podcast and our other Swiss podcasts in English here.

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