Joint Statement of More Than a Hundred Afghan Women’s Protest Movements
On the Occasion of March 8, International Women’s Day: “The Denial of Internal Resistance is an Attempt to Purify Terrorism and Perpetuate Gender Apartheid”
We, the signatories of this statement, on the eve of March 8, International Women’s Solidarity Day, once again raise our voices of protest and justice-seeking against the anti-women and authoritarian Taliban regime. This year, we welcome this day at a time when Afghan women are facing the most difficult test of survival at the intersection of systematic elimination and global oblivion; a situation that is no longer just deprivation, but an attempt to completely deprive them of human dignity and the right to “be.”
This statement is issued in direct response to the irresponsible statements of some European Union representatives who, by deliberately ignoring the bloody repression, have claimed that “no one inside Afghanistan is against the Taliban regime.” We consider this claim not only a complete lie, but also an attempt to create a platform for engaging with terrorism and insulting the sacrifices of women who stand against this darkness in the trenches, streets, prisons and other places.
Legal citations and gross violations of international law:
Citing the Taliban’s self-made and inhumane documents, we remind the international community that the silence of the people is not due to consent, but is the product of a new system of slavery:
• The Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prohibition of Vice (August 2024): By banning women from speaking in public (Articles 13 and 14), this law has effectively removed women from the category of human beings and turned them into objects. This measure is a clear example of gender apartheid and a clear violation of the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women” (CEDAW).
• The Criminal Code of the Taliban Courts: By dividing citizens into classes of “clerics, nobility and lower class”, this document has destroyed the principle of equality before the law. Also, by legitimizing the term “slave” and allowing punishment by the owner, it has effectively formalized slavery, which is a clear violation of the “1926 Slavery Convention.”
• Systematic religious and ethnic discrimination: In this constitution, followers of non-Hanafi sects, such as Shiites and Ismailis, are recognized as “innovators,” which paves the way for religious genocide and the complete elimination of minorities from the country’s legal and social structure.
• Denial of identity for livelihood: The depth of the disaster has reached such a point that women have been forced to deny their female identity in order to provide for their families and survive. The bitter story of the lives of people like “Nooriya,” who are forced to hide their identity and gender in order to obtain work permits and escape hunger, is evidence of the absolute desperation that this regime has imposed on society.
Basic and urgent demands:
1. Stop lobbying for the Taliban: We call on the EU to listen to the voices of protesting women and the reports of the UN Special Rapporteur, rather than repeating the Taliban narrative. Claiming “no opposition” ignores the bloodshed and systematic torture in intelligence prisons.
2. Recognize gender apartheid: We call on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to expedite the prosecution of Taliban leaders for organized crimes against humanity and gender apartheid, in accordance with Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute.
3. Support the judicial process in Spain: We support the courageous action of the Spanish court in prosecuting the Taliban and call on all EU member states to cooperate with this legal process.
4. Warning against legitimization: Any international meeting without the presence of real representatives of women and protest groups lacks legitimacy and its results are unacceptable to the Afghan people.
Signatories: