IWDU Statement in Defense of Afghan Women

The International Women’s Democracy Union (IWDU) strongly condemns the brutal repression of freedom and fundamental rights of all Afghan men and women under the Taliban’s dictatorship. We particularly denounce the severe oppression of women following the new legislative measures decreed by the Taliban government this August.

The Taliban regime has enacted 35 new measures under the “Vice and Virtue” laws, which further escalate the repression of all Afghans’ freedom, but especially that of women. Among these new repressive measures is the prohibition of women’s voices in public by preventing them from singing, reciting, or speaking with a microphone.

These new measures intensify an existing brutal assault on the fundamental rights of women since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021. Since then, girls’ education beyond the sixth grade has been banned, most jobs have been denied to women, and nearly all of their movements are restricted unless accompanied by men.

As Human Rights Watch and other organizations have reported, young women are essentially confined to their residences until they marry, and those who resist or protest such oppression, face arrest and torture. This constitutes gender apartheid, adding to the ongoing abuse of freedom and fundamental rights by the barbaric Afghan dictatorship.

Therefore, the IWDU stands in solidarity with Afghan women and strongly condemns their repression under the Taliban’s dictatorship. We decry such an imposition of an apartheid based on gender.