Open Letter: Call for Action in Support of Women in Afghanistan
To Institutions, Organizations, Human Rights Defenders, and Women’s Rights Advocates,
August .15.2023
Over the past two years of Taliban rule, it has become evident that the world and its leaders have been
bystanders to the Taliban’s aggression against the people of Afghanistan, particularly women. Afghan women
have been turned into the darkest victims of a regime that is hostile to women’s rights, day by day, under the
banner of a misogynistic ideology. Their fundamental rights, from education to work, have been suppressed
and restricted.
In the 21st century, while the world is advancing with artificial intelligence and space satellites, millions of
human beings are trapped under the grip of a terrorizing regime. While global society parades slogans of
human rights and women’s rights, Afghan women are engulfed in the flames of extremism and barbarism. The
international community, with empty sympathy and hollow statements, has failed to respond to the suffering
of Afghan women, who are being subjected to killings, imprisonment, torture, and even sexual assault in the
face of any protest within this regime.
In addition to the aforementioned issues, the discrimination and genocide against other ethnic groups in
Afghanistan, the suppression of languages, cultures, and religions of various Afghan communities, forced
migration, and the relocation of Pakistani tribes to northern and central Afghanistan, which has led to local
people’s migration and displacement, cannot be ignored. Not only are people suffering in a dire economic,
political, and social situation, but a humanitarian crisis has escalated across the country, with over 25 million
Afghans falling below the poverty line, as reported by the United Nations.
The Afghan Women Foundation acknowledges that the irresponsibility of world leaders, in their compliance
with the Doha Agreement and the tolerance of the Taliban, has left us without a question. The complacency
and appeasement of politicians and vested interest groups in engaging with this group has left us astonished.
The offering of rewards and financial incentives to this group on a weekly basis, under the pretext of
addressing the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, has not surprised us. We have not been comforted by this
spectatorship, this silence, and these ostensible expressions of solidarity with the people.
Our pain and our question is why the world’s people, the advocates of human rights and women’s rights,
especially the women of the world, do not see the cries of Afghan women both within and outside of
Afghanistan. Why are they not taking concrete actions beyond just condemning the Taliban’s inhumane
orders? Unless people can exert pressure on politicians, how else can anything change? Where is the will to push their own countries to pressure this terrorist regime, whose leaders are on the United Nations’ blacklist
and some of whom are still under investigation? Why are they not questioning the interaction and
understanding with fear-instilling groups, so that this might not become a policy, and the fate of Afghan
women does not become the fate of women in the rest of the world?
The negligence of Afghan women is the negligence of the whole world’s women. The plight of Afghan women
must be a plight for all women of the world, and they should not allow their fellow women to drown in
misery.
The Afghan Women’s Foundation, with the goal of urging practical action for the salvation of Afghan women,
calls upon all institutions, human rights defenders, and women’s rights advocates to stand alongside Afghan
women in action. Considering the moral responsibility of every citizen of this global village, the only solution
is the will to act by institutions, organizations, and women’s rights advocates to save Afghan women. Show
your unity with Afghan women, show your pain, and stand together to demand justice for the challenges
Afghan women face. Apply necessary pressure on countries, their authorities, politicians, and decisionmakers
to bring an end to this heartbreaking narrative of Afghan women once and for all.
In pursuit of this wish, the Afghan Women’s Foundation, during the two years of oppressive Taliban rule,
through this letter and call to action, brings to the attention of institutions, organizations, human rights
defenders, and women’s rights advocates the distress, pain, suffering, and hopelessness faced by women
under the rule of this group. We call for a review and contemplation of some of the inhumane orders issued
by the Taliban against women:
On September 18, 2021: Education for girls beyond the sixth grade was banned.
By December 23, 2021: Male drivers were ordered not to transport women without “appropriate hijab,” and
women were forbidden from traveling distances exceeding 45 miles (72 kilometers) without a mahram.
By March 27, 2022: Women’s access to parks was restricted, and women were prohibited from traveling on
domestic and international flights without a mahram.
By May 7, 2022: Women were required to adhere to “appropriate hijab,” preferably full-face black “niqab” or
not leave home at all (as the “best and most suitable form of hijab”).
By May 21, 2022: Female TV presenters were required to cover their faces.
By June 1, 2022: Girls in grades 4 to 6 were required to cover their faces while traveling to and from school.
By August 23, 2022: Female government employees were ordered to stop working and stay at home.
By November 10, 2022: Women were prohibited from attending sports facilities.
By November 11, 2022: Women were prohibited from entering parks in Kabul. A later written announcement
released in Faryab Province extended the ban to women’s access to public restrooms, sports clubs, and
recreational parks.
By December 20, 2022: Women’s presence in universities was put on “suspension” mode.

By December 22, 2022: Any education beyond the sixth grade for girls was banned.
By December 24, 2022: Women were put on “suspension” from working in national and international nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs).
By April 4, 2023: Afghan women were banned from working at the United Nations.
By June 5, 2023: Women makeup artists were banned from working.