Two years of ever-intensifying repression since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 have not dimmed the resilience of girls and women in Afghanistan, who continue to risk their lives fighting for their right to an education and employment. But no one should be in any doubt that what Afghan girls are experiencing is not a temporary disruption. It is nothing less than “gender apartheid”, the chilling words used recently by the permanent representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations. Only a term as devastating as this can capture the grave violations of rights involved. It is time to declare it a crime against humanity, and the prosecutors of the international criminal court (ICC) should open an investigation into the repression ordained by the Taliban regime.
Even now, under fear of arrest, detention and torture for transgressing the Taliban’s rights-violating edicts, brave children across Afghanistan are attending underground schools. A major initiative on internet learning in universities has also recently started, with support from the refugee agency UNHCR and the consortium Connected Learning in Crisis. Many families have realised that the only chance of education for their daughters is through emigration. That still leaves an estimated 2.5 million girls and young women with no education at all, and they will soon be joined by a further 3 million who are about to complete their primary education. Unable to move up to secondary school, yet another generation of Afghan girls will be denied a chance to realise their talents and fulfil their dreams.
