On August 15, 2021, the world watched helplessly as the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan. This event triggered a global shockwave and raised particular concerns about the fate of Afghan girls and women, whose rights were already under threat. Three years later, the situation is dire.
Over the course of three years, the Taliban have profoundly reshaped Afghan society, to the detriment of women’s fundamental freedoms and their participation in public life. Women have become deliberate targets, subjected today to a form of “gender apartheid” that affects all aspects of their public and political lives. Their involvement in society is meticulously controlled and systematically diminished, relegating them to secondary roles, if not outright exclusion.
Marginalized and oppressed within an exclusively male governance model, Afghan women are subject to severe restrictions affecting their professional development, freedom of movement, and right to education. The bravest, those who dare to advocate for their rights, are brutally repressed. Some are imprisoned, and others have been murdered, as was the case with YouTuber Hora Sadat, who paid with her life on August 21, 2021, for her desire for independence.
The systematic exclusion of women from all sectors of society only exacerbates gender inequality in Afghanistan. Every day, new laws and decrees further reinforce this imposed isolation, making women increasingly invisible to the world and erasing decades of progress in gender equality.
A war against the education and empowerment of Afghan girls
The repression of Afghan girls is particularly brutal in the field of education. Having excluded girls from schools and universities, the Taliban are waging an unrelenting campaign against their empowerment by forbidding them access to any form of education beyond primary school. And while they are allowed to attend primary school, core subjects such as mathematics, languages, and social sciences have been removed from the curriculum, replaced by strict religious teachings, which are reserved for boys.
Clandestine classe provided to five Afghan girls deprived of education by the Taliban ©FEMAID
Education is a key tool for women’s empowerment and their future. Aware of this challenge, since 2022, the RAJA-Danièle Marcovici Foundation, in collaboration with the association Femaid, has been funding clandestine classes for girls aged 11 to 18. This initiative allows female teachers, who have been deprived of their jobs, to offer paid online courses covering the high school curriculum and the first year of university.
In 2022:
The fight for access to education is not only the responsibility of Afghan girls, as Carol Mann, president of the FEMAID association, pointed out:
“In France, we must constantly remind ourselves that the cause of Afghan women is also ours. Even if the country may seem distant, Afghan youth share the same aspirations as those in the West.”
The path toward a more just and equal future remains fraught with challenges, but it is crucial not to look away. Fundamental women’s rights, such as access to education, work, and freedom of movement, continue to be violated under authoritarian regimes, yet international solidarity remains a powerful tool in supporting this struggle.
