Special Report: Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan

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Jillian Butler

Written: May 21, 2024

May 22, 2024/19:40 EDT 

Illegitimacy of the Taliban in the International Community

Since the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban has turned its back on the majority of the terms for Western withdrawal and shut out the majority of the international community. In February 2024, the group made a last minute decision to boycott a UN meeting in Doha, Qatar regarding the current state of Afghanistan. A wide range of organizations and officials, including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, special envoys to Afghanistan from twenty-five different nations, and several members of Afghan civil society, attended the two-day summit. However, the Taliban claimed the meeting was “unbeneficial”, as the UN did not center the Taliban as the sole governing body of Afghanistan.  Russia and China were the only attending parties that showed the Taliban a modicum of support.  A Russian embassy social media account expressed written support for the group’s decision. China insisted that Afghanistan’s $7 million overseas assets be unfrozen. During the meeting, the state of women and girls in Afghanistan was discussed. 

Gender Apartheid

Since NATO forces withdrew, the Taliban has swiftly rolled back the rights of women and girls. Afghanistan has now beat Syria and Yemen for the #1 worst country to live in as a woman. Women cannot be in public parks, play sports, or attend secondary school. They are forced to cover themselves head to toe in burqas. Additionally, women are prohibited from seeing male doctors, yet cannot study to become doctors, creating a healthcare crisis. Life is so different for men and women in the country, that activists have dubbed this travesty ‘the gender apartheid’. This term is also used to describe life in the Islamic Republic of Iran.