Gender Apartheid Against Women And Girls In Afghanistan

On March 6, 2023, Richard Bennett, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, presented his report on the situation in Afghanistan stating that the situation of human rights in Afghanistan continued to deteriorate since his last report in 2022. As his report indicates, “in mid-November 2022, the authorities banned access of women and girls to parks, gyms and public baths and, on December 21, they announced the immediate suspension of women from universities. Three days later, on December 24, women were barred from working for domestic and international NGOs, with a consequent severe negative impact on the life-saving humanitarian services they provide, which are critical for humanitarian protection and other human rights and development activities. Measures have been taken to erase women from all public spaces.”

In his report, Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett concluded that “the cumulative effect of the Taliban’s systematic discrimination against women raises concerns about the commission of international crimes.” However, as he was presenting the report, he indicated that “the cumulative effect of the restrictions on women and girls (…) was tantamount to gender apartheid.”

Gender apartheid is not an international crime. As per the Rome Statute, apartheid, as crimes against humanity, is defined around the issue of racial oppression as “inhumane acts of a character similar to those referred to [the Statute], committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.” While gender is not covered within this definition, the Rome Statute covers the crime of gender persecution as crimes against humanity with “persecution” meaning “the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity” and “gender” meaning “the two sexes, male and female, within the context of society.”

While gender apartheid is not an international crime yet, the topic has been receiving some attention, especially as the oppression of women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran is ever-growing and their rights are virtually non-existing.

Karima Bennoune, the Lewis M. Simes Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, defined gender apartheid as “a system of governance, based on laws and/or policies, which imposes systematic segregation of women and men and may also systematically exclude women from public spaces and spheres.” As she explains, “gender apartheid is anathema to [the] foundational norms of international law, every bit as much as racial apartheid was to the analogous principles prohibiting race discrimination. Ultimately, as racial apartheid was for Black South Africans, gender apartheid is an erasure of the humanity of women. Every aspect of female existence is controlled and scrutinized.” Karima Bennoune concludes that “there is no escape from gender apartheid. The solution cannot be the departure of half the population of the country.”

In March 2023, a group of Iranian and Afghan legal experts, activists, and women leaders from across the world launched an international campaign “End Gender Apartheid” to raise awareness about the experiences of women in Iran and Afghanistan living under gender apartheid and to move governments to act, including by expanding the legal definition of apartheid under international and national laws to include gender apartheid.

As the situation of women and girls is deteriorating in Afghanistan and Iran, and any political “dialogue” with those in power have not delivered any palpable change, it is crucial to use any means available to fight for these women and girls, their present and their future. In 2023, we cannot tolerate the oppression of this magnitude. The international community must come together for the women and girls of Afghanistan and Iran.