Afghanistan: “We were wiped out” – The cries of women at the UN

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 Mahbouba Sheraz 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 stated that “I’m bored» to sound the alarm in vain about the encroachment on the rights of women and girls in the country.

After their return to power on August 15, 2021 the Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on women and girls; girls’ schools were closed of secondary education in most provinces and the banned from working in the public sector. Alongside they asked them to be completely covered when they are outside their home.

“Afghan women are now at the mercy of a team which is deeply anti-women and does not recognize them as human beings,” pointed out Razia Sayad, an Afghan lawyer and former commissioner of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

“The women of this country do not 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 matter if it doesn’t lead somewhere.

Sheraz, like others, called on the Human Rights Council to set up a commission of independent experts to document all violations committed in Afghanistan, with the goal of holding those responsible accountable.

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

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