AMED - In a statement opposing Taliban repression of women in Afghanistan, TJA said: “We support Afghan women’s legitimate struggle and stand with their determination to live equally and freely.”

 

The Free Women’s Movement (TJA/Tevgera Jinên Azad) has issued a statement on the escalating repression of women in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized control of the capital, Kabul, on August 15, 2021.

 

In its written statement, TJA said it stands with Afghan women in the face of the Taliban’s systematic repression aimed at erasing women from all areas of life. The statement said: “The policies pursued by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan go far beyond isolated violations of rights. This system, which seeks to completely erase women from social and public life, constitutes an institutionalized regime of gender apartheid (gender segregation).”

 

The statement described the decrees stripping women of their rights to education, work, travel and freedom of expression as systematic attempts by a male-dominated system to suppress women’s autonomy. It said: “Despite all the repression, restrictions and unlawful practices, we salute Afghan women’s struggle for their rights in private spaces, underground schools and online networks.”

 

The statement stressed that Afghan women’s struggle for equality and freedom will not be left to stand alone and said: “At this point, the United Nations and other international actors must immediately end the diplomacy that serves to legitimize the Taliban regime and formally recognize the existing system of repression under international law as ‘gender apartheid’ and a crime against humanity. As the Kurdish Women’s Movement, we support Afghan women’s legitimate struggle against the Taliban mindset and all structures that deny women their rights, and stand with their determination to live equally and freely. Long live women’s internationalist struggle against the male-dominated system! Jin, jiyan, azadî.”