Desperate cry of women from Afghanistan: We have been wiped out

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UN appeal for help – Taliban-imposed ‘gender apartheid’ must end

Afghan women appealed today from UN clarion call for international action to end the “gender apartheid” imposed on their country by the Taliban.

“Today human rights do not exist in Afghanistan,” said Mahbooba Sheraj before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on the occasion of a debate on the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

This journalist and activist said she was “tired” of sounding the alarm in vain about the violation of women’s and girls’ rights in the country.

After returning to power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on women and girls: they closed secondary girls’ schools in most provinces and banned them from working in the public sector. At the same time, they asked them to cover themselves completely when they are outside their home.

“Afghan women are now at the mercy of a group that is deeply anti-women and does not recognize them as human beings,” she said. Razia Sayadan Afghan lawyer and former commissioner of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

“The women of this country don’t exist (…) They have made us disappear,” complained Sheraz.

She asked UN officials to take every possible measure to reverse the situation.

“I’m begging you all: please, if the Council can do something, let it do it,” he stressed, asking them to stop discussing the issue if it doesn’t lead somewhere.

Sheraz asked, like others, from the Human Rights Council to set up a commission of independent experts, responsible for recording all violations committed in Afghanistan, with the aim of holding those responsible accountable.

“Only God knows what kind of atrocities have gone unreported,” he warned.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan Richard Bennett also underlined the importance of strengthening the issue of accountability and pointed out that the situation in the country can be compared to “gender apartheid”.

RES-EMP

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