Australia’s foreign minister has shone a spotlight on the plight of women and girls living in Afghanistan, describing the past 18 months for the nation as a period of one of the world’s steepest declines in the respect of human rights for this group.
Following the Taliban wresting control of the nation, and the aftermath of America’s withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 2021, the situation for women and girls has been dire.
Fundamental freedoms have been taken away, and the full and equal participation of this group in education and the workforce have been impacted — with many people trapped in their homes and forced out of work, some women who have applied for divorce have been subject to a government decision to annul their divorces and force them to return to abusive spouses in their old homes.
“The meaningful participation [of women and girls] in society are not only goals in themselves but also are prerequisites for sustainable economic and political development, social cohesion, stability, and peace in Afghanistan,” Penny Wong said in a joint statement on International Women’s Day with her ministerial counterparts from Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States and the High Representative of the European Union.
“Barring women and girls from receiving an education and excluding women from working in crucial sectors will also severely inhibit the much-needed economic recovery of Afghanistan.”
This is the second IWD Afghanistan has seen since the Taliban swept into power.
The ministers said that unless the backward slide on human rights issues for Afghanistan’s women and girls was reversed, every country’s citizens faced poorer outcomes.
“Afghan women and girls have been denied access to secondary education, to higher education, to public and political spaces, and to employment opportunities. Services for supporting victims of gender-based violence have been largely dismantled.
“Unless reversed, the harmful effects of these reprehensible measures will be devastating and irreparable for Afghanistan’s economy and society — effects that will be felt by every Afghan,” the statement read.
The foreign ministers called out the important role of the UN and other civil society organisations that have mobilised to deliver humanitarian assist the people of Afghanistan since the Taliban overthrew the government.
They also expressed concerns that the Taliban will further restrict women and girls’ civil, political, economic, cultural and social rights, with a dire impact on the future of Afghanistan and its people.
The #envoy of the Secretary-General for #Afghanistan, Ambassador #Tariq_Ali_Bakheet , met with a delegation from the #UnitedNations Mission in #Afghanistan headed by Mr. Markus Butzel, Deputy Head of Mission, at the headquarters of the #OIC office in #Kabul. pic.twitter.com/3afIe4KYEY
— OIC (@OIC_OCI) March 8, 2023
Highlighting the official position of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which in December 2022 confirmed that preventing women and girls from accessing education was contrary to Islamic law, the foreign ministers said added pressures facing the community such as famine and starvation posed an additional challenge for women.
“The Taliban’s edict barring women from working for national and international nongovernmental organisations, and the effects of the edict on some governmental organisations, is already jeopardising the efforts of humanitarian organisations to reach the more than 28 million Afghans who depend on humanitarian aid to survive,” they said.
“Together we urge the Taliban to respect all people of Afghanistan, deliver on their commitments to the Afghan people and the international community, and reverse all decisions and practices restricting women’s and girls’ exercise of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
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