“Something died inside me on August 15, 2021, or at least that’s what I felt: my hopes were dashed, my education was in vain (…). But I understood that there were still many women fighting within the country. And I chose to be one of them. » These words are Nasima’s. [son prénom a été changé pour des raisons de sécurité], activist for women’s rights in Afghanistan. After the Taliban took power, she decided to stay in her home country to defend women’s rights, putting her life at risk.
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. » This is the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. All human beings, that is: all girls and all women too. And yet, on their own soil, Afghan women are deprived of their fundamental rights and stripped of their humanity. In recent months, the latest decree on “the prevention of vice and the promotion of virtue” put the final nail in the coffin of women’s freedoms. From now on they are prohibited from leaving their homes alone, making their voices heard in public, or reciting a poem. His crime? Be a woman. His fault? Exist.
Girls and women are no longer allowed to sing; they no longer had
full freedom to learn or teach. Afghanistan is now the only country that bans education for girls over 12 and women. According to UNESCO data, 80% of Afghan women of school age, or 2.5 million, are deprived of their right to education. Young Afghan women cannot be deprived of a universal and fundamental right!
Therefore, let us have no illusions about the archaic and theocratic nature of the Taliban regime, which denies the humanity and dignity of women. It is a crime, a systematic persecution based on gender that irritates all consciences, and in particular ours, as women politicians and presidents of the Assembly.
But if Afghan women have become shadows in their own land, their now muffled voices must continue to echo and echo in our Parliaments. For three years, our debates have echoed their struggle. As during the first Summit of Presidents of Assemblies, which brought together twenty-four of us in Paris on March 6 and 7: together we reaffirm our commitment to the right to education of Afghan women and we strongly remember that our Parliaments will always support the first line for women’s rights.
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