On 17 September 2024, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists hosted an event to highlight the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan, three years after the Taliban's return to de facto power.
The event drew over 100 attendees, including members of the public, the Commonwealth and diplomatic community, civil society, academics, and Afghan nationals.
Professor Kingsley Abbott, Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, opened the event by acknowledging that although the situation in Afghanistan has been described as the world's most serious women’s rights crisis, it has largely faded from the news cycle. He emphasized that the event aimed to help ensure the issue remains in the minds of the public and on the international community's agenda, including the 56 nations of the Commonwealth.
The evening’s speakers, who discussed the current situation and proposed paths forward, were:
- Zahra Joya, an Afghan journalist living in London, and the editor-in-chief and founder of Rukhshana Media, a news agency reporting on the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan;
- Sir Laurie Bristow, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Afghanistan from June to November 2021, and currently President of Hughes Hall, Cambridge University; and
- Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, who is currently a visiting professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden.
The conversation was moderated by Amie Ferris-Rotman, a British-American journalist based in London, currently the global news editor at New Lines Magazine.
Manizha Talash, an Afghan breakdancer who competed in the 2024 Olympic Games for the Refugee Team, also addressed the audience. She made headlines after being disqualified for wrapping herself in a burqa bearing the message "Free Afghan Women."
Background
In 2021, the United States and NATO members withdrew their troops from Afghanistan, following the February 2020 Doha Agreement between the United States and the Taliban. The agreement stipulated that the Taliban would engage in peace negotiations with the internationally recognized Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. However, instead of meaningful negotiations, the Taliban launched an aggressive military campaign, ultimately seizing power on 15 August 2021. The United States and NATO forces evacuated people at risk during the second half of August, with the final withdrawal occurring on 30 August 2021.
The Taliban, a political and militant Islamic fundamentalist movement, first controlled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 before being ousted by US-backed forces in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks. For the next two decades, the international community, through the UN, supported Afghanistan with efforts aimed at fostering inclusive governance, security, and development. Despite this, no country currently recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, and the UN has consistently called on them to move toward more inclusive governance.
Since retaking power, the Taliban has rolled back the rights of women and girls, with numerous reports of other human rights violations. A 2024 Report presented to the UN Human Rights Council by Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, stated: “The system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity, and exclusion institutionalized by the Taliban is motivated by, and results in, a profound rejection of the full humanity of women and girls.”
Restrictions on women’s rights include exclusion from public life, denial of access to education and the justice system, and bans on most forms of paid employment. Women are also prohibited from attending gyms and beauty salons, and they must comply with a strict dress code. Earlier this year, the Taliban announced the reintroduction of public flogging and stoning for women accused of adultery.
Most recently, the Taliban have introduced new “vice and virtue” laws that prohibit women from speaking or showing their faces in public. These restrictions have been widely condemned by the UN and human rights organizations.
In 2023, Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists published a report titled The Taliban’s War on Women, recommending that the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls be classified as a crime against humanity under "gender persecution."