Please keep sharing until it finally reaches every responsible leader and decision-maker. The voices of Afghan women must not be ignored any longer:
We, the women of Afghanistan, write this letter with clear voices and hearts heavy with pain but still filled with hope. For the past four years, we have been stripped of our most basic human rights. The Taliban has closed the doors of schools and universities to girls, banned women from working, silenced our voices, and erased our presence from public life. Even the face and voices of Afghan women are considered as a crime.
Do you know what Afghan women are facing?
• They are forced into early and arranged marriages.
• They suffer from severe psychological trauma.
• They experience constant domestic violence, poverty and health care.
• They are imprisoned by the Taliban — simply for being women.
• They are denied the right to protest for their own rights.
• Some are even stoned to death.
• By blocking women from becoming doctors and banning them from seeing male doctors, the Taliban are basically telling Afghan women to suffer and die without healthcare.
• women and girls not even pulled out of the earthquake rubble in Afghanistan because men won’t touch them and male doctors won’t treat them. ‘Barbaric’ doesn’t even come close.
Afghan women are living in one of the most terrifying and unjust conditions imaginable and yet the world continues to watch in silence. We ask you now to break that silence and to stand with us. We, the women of Afghanistan, demand the following from you:
1. Apply direct political and legal pressure on the Taliban to restore all our rights.
2. We demand the immediate removal of all restrictions that violate the rights of Afghan women and girls, including the rights to education, work, freedom of movement, expression, assembly, and access to healthcare.
3. Afghan women require full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation in all public and decision-making processes concerning Afghanistan, including political processes, with direct avenues for engagement with international communities.
4. Those responsible for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, such as extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and sex-based violence, must be held accountable. An independent international accountability mechanism for Afghanistan should be established by the UN Human Rights Council.
5. Protect and support women who participate in peaceful resistance — including those who run underground schools and raise their voices at great personal risk.
6. Do not silence our voices — amplify them. Hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against women. We are not silent. But we ask you: will the world stand with us?
With respect,
The Women of Afghanistan
