Amnesty Feminists: Rise With Afghan Women Local Group briefing

Rise with Afghan Women - What you need to know before meeting your MP

Rise with Afghan Women is an Amnesty Feminist campaign, aiming to bring tangible positive change for women and girls living in Afghanistan.

Rise With Afghan Women 

Since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, Afghanistan has been in a downward spiral of human rights violations. Women and girls have been banned from attending secondary school and higher education, they are restricted from working in a majority of sectors and from traveling without a male chaperone. 

Despite these oppressive restrictions, Afghan women and girls are showing remarkable resilience - supporting each other, speaking out, and fighting for their rights. 

What’s the issue

When the US withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, the world watched in grief as the Taliban seized power of the country once again. But militant extremist groups in Afghanistan, did not suddenly come to hold power. You can read more about the long and complicated history in our blog. [insert blog QR code - https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/amnesty-feminist-network-blog/uniting-…]

Since 2021, the Taliban have imposed oppressive restrictions on Afghan women and girls, systematically stripping away nearly all of their fundamental rights. Women are barred from secondary and higher education, and are largely prohibited from working in vital sectors including medicine, media and journalism. Those who are able to work, must follow repressive laws and procedures. 

Taliban have dismantled institutions like the Ministry of Women’s Affair, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, Attorney General Office and all gender and human rights focused units that aimed to support women and girls survivors of domestic violence and discrimination. Even leisure spaces like parks and gyms are now off-limits to women, as they face strict limitations on their freedom of movement, often requiring a male guardian to leave their homes. 

The Taliban have dismissed allegations of gender persecution by claiming they are complying with Sharia (Islamic law) and ‘Afghan culture.’ Amnesty International has documented that the Taliban`s draconian restrictions on the fundamental rights of women and girls, together with the widespread use of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, may amount to the crime against humanity of gender persecution. Scan the QR code to read our report. [Insert IS report QR code]

Amnesty International has also carried research with 150 individuals covering a range of stakeholders including Afghan human rights defenders, members of academia, women protestors and activists, young people, civil society representatives and journalists who are currently residing inside Afghanistan or are in exile, who overwhelmingly believe that the international community has failed the people of Afghanistan. Not only have they failed to hold the Taliban accountable for the crimes and human rights violations, they have also failed to come up with a strategic direction to prevent any further harm.

International accountability

International Court of Justice initiative

Australia, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands announced at the 2024 UN General Assembly, that they will initiate legal proceedings, that could ultimately lead to action at the International Court of Justice against Afghanistan for numerous violations of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). 

Amnesty International welcomes this, and any steps by States to hold the Taliban accountable under international law for the widespread and institutionalized violation of women’s and girls’ human rights, which most likely amount to the crime against humanity of gender persecution.

Along with over 20 other countries, the UK has pledged its political support for this campaign. But we believe the UK needs to stand up and do more, so we are asking them to formally join the case with Australia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands.

Gender Apartheid

In 2022, Women’s Rights Defenders from Afghanistan and Iran launched a campaign to recognise these countries as committing ‘Gender Apartheid’. The term ‘Apartheid’ was born out of apartheid South Africa, and its system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination. Women living in Iran and Afghanistan are campaigning for the same recognition in regards to segregation and discrimination based on gender, and define ‘Gender Apartheid’ as “inhumane acts … committed in the context of an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one gender group over any other gender group or groups, and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.” Amnesty International says Gender Apartheid must be recognized as a crime under international law in order to strengthen efforts to combat institutionalized regimes of systematic oppression imposed on the grounds of gender.

Call to Action

The UK must step up to put an end to the cycle of repression in Afghanistan, and we are urgently calling on the UK Government to use all its power to protect the human rights of Afghan women and girls, and take a leading role in holding the Taliban to account.

On August 15 2025, we mark the fourth anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover, and the devastating impact this had had on the country. We are asking MP’s to submit a written or oral question to Parliament asking;

1. What is the UK Government currently doing to protect the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan

2. Is the UK Government planning to formally join Canada, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands case at the International Court of Justice?

3.   How will the UK Government formally support the campaign to codify Gender Apartheid under international law? 

Next steps

If you are successful in gaining a meeting with your MP, please let us know by emailing feministnetwork@amnesty.org.uk.  We are happy to offer you any support you might need, or answer any questions you have. It's also really important that we try and track our impact - we want to know if your MP makes any positive statements or commitments to the campaign so we can help you build on that success.

Additional Resources

Rise With Afghan Women Campaign - https://www.amnesty.org.uk/rwaw 

Amnesty International stakeholder research (2024) - https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/08/afghanistan-three-years-of-taliban-rule-and-international-inaction-have-left-afghan-community-with-little-hope/

Amnesty International report (2023) - The Talibans War on Women https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa11/6789/2023/en/

Amnesty International report (2022) - Death in Slow Motion https://www.amnesty.org.uk/resources/afghanistan-death-slow-motion-2022 

Rise With Afghan Women webinars - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsw36_DXhi4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jISeS3FuwI

Gender Apartheid Campaign https://endgenderapartheid.today/