Excellences,
While women are half of the society; in Afghanistan however, they have always been imprisoned in their houses, faced with discrimination, and deprived of their basic rights. In the last two decades, with the international community’s presence in Afghanistan, opportunities were created for women. Afghan women and girls used these opportunities to endure many hardships. pursued education, engaged in social and civic activities, and proved that if opportunities are given, they can play a significant role in the construction and development of the country alongside the men.
With the collapse of Afghanistan into the hands of the Taliban, the women in Afghanistan are once again locked in their homes. they are now deprived of the rights to education, work, social and political activities. A large number of women have stood up against gender discrimination imposed by the Taliban. They fight for their rights by staging protests on the streets of Kabul almost on a daily basis. Unfortunately, women’s peaceful protests have always been violently suppressed by the Taliban.
We, as educated Afghan women & girls realize that women have a long and difficult road ahead to achieve their rights. therefore, we decided to establish the “Afghan Women’s Movement for Justice and Freedom”. Members of this movement is committed to continue to coordinate and effectively manage our peaceful protests against the discrimination, injustice, and tyranny of the Taliban.
Our goal is to contribute to peace and justice. to fight for eliminating all forms of injustice, including ethnic, religious, linguistic, and gender discrimination. we are trying to create equality for all citizens so that no one is excluded from educational, employment, social, and political opportunities. We try to make sure all citizens experience a peaceful coexistence, enjoy equal opportunities, and play a role in the development of Afghanistan.
Our approach is completely non-violence. we make our acts and demands are in accordance with internationally accepted laws & standards. We are holding peaceful protests and press conferences to address injustices, and misconducts. in order to inform the people and international community, we raise our voices in the face of any kind of injustice and violation of Human rights.
Afghan Women’s Movement for Justice and Freedom calls on the United Nations, and all the participants of the Oslo Summit:
1- to only support the formation of an inclusive government that is based on the will and vote of the Afghan citizens. A single-sex, single-party and mono-tonic government in Afghanistan is not acceptable to the Afghan people. The new government should be a mirror of the whole society including men and women and all minorities.
2- to put pressure on the Taliban to hire professionals and experienced employees in their government regardless of their ethnicity, religion, political ideology, gender, language, etc., and use their abilities to govern the country. The Taliban have so far appointed their own members in the leadership of all units, who have no initial knowledge and experience of the positions.
3- we call on United Nations to strongly support Afghan women. and pressurize the Taliban in upholding the basic women’s rights for education, work, social and political participation.
- Despite the fact that our protests were peaceful, democratic, and non-violence. unfortunately, the Taliban used violent, brutal, and inhumane ways to suppress them. they used gun force to suppress and stop the movement’s activities. The women and girls who were members of our movement have been arrested, imprisoned, beaten, and even killed. Sadly, many of the protesting girls were gang-raped. For example, forty protesters in Balkh province were arrested during a protest on September 8, 2021. They all were tortured then gang-raped and eventually most of them were shot by the Taliban. Nine of them were killed during the torture. The bodies of eight of them have been found in different parts of the city and the other nine are still missing. Their case has been reported by many media.
We, the women and girls of Afghanistan, call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway, Ms. Anniken Huitfeldt, the Norwegian government, and the people of this country, especially human rights and women’s rights activists, to urge the Taliban to not suppress the peaceful protests of Afghan women and not to detain or torture them.
- We call on the international community, to not leave the Afghan people alone. to support them to end their 40-year war and suffering and help them experience peace and peaceful coexistence.
- as extreme poverty and unemployment have put Afghanistan on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, we call on international and humanitarian organizations to continue their humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. we also want the international community to monitor the distribution of such assistance to those in need. Humanitarian support should reach the poor people because so far it has been distributed in an unjust way. The poor and the real deserving people have been deprived of aid because of their ethnicity and other affiliation.
Yours Sincerely
