On March 4, 2024, British parliamentarians, including Baroness Helena Kennedy of the Shaws KC, Baroness Fiona Hodgson, the Rt Hon Caroline Nokes MP, and Joanna Cherry KC MP, published a report on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran. The report entitled “Shattering Women’s Rights, Shattering Lives” follows several weeks-long inquiry with testimonies from Afghan and Iranian women and global experts (the Inquiry). Citing the words of Malala Yousafzai, human rights advocate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the report reminds us that “If you are a girl in Afghanistan, the Taliban has decided your future for you. You cannot attend secondary school or university. You cannot find open libraries where you can read. You see your mothers confined, unable to work, go to the park, get a haircut, or even see a doctor.”
The Inquiry was convened to respond to the ever-growing marginalization of women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran which closely resembles segregation. Women and girls in those countries are treated as second-class citizens, deprived of their freedoms and forced to adhere to strict dress codes under the threat of severe punishments. All these forms of discrimination and persecution are institutionalized, as they stem from policies and practices put in place by the authorities. Because of that, Afghan and Iranian women, including prolific lawyers, journalists, and human rights defenders, such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi, the first woman Deputy Speaker in the Afghan Parliament Fawzia Koofi, actress and human rights advocate Nazanin Boniadi, and journalist and human rights advocate, Masih Alinejad, among others, have been calling for the recognition of this treatment of women in these countries as gender apartheid.
As it stands, the existing legal framework fails to fully capture the nature of this treatment of women and girls and, in turn, provide adequate responses. Currently, the crime of apartheid is codified within international legal instruments to address a specific form of oppression based on race, as was the case in South Africa. Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, it encompasses inhumane acts perpetrated within an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and dominance by one racial group over others, with the explicit intention of perpetuating such a regime.
To address this legal obstacle, Afghan and Iranian women have been leading the international call to codify gender apartheid – as the first step to ensure that the situation is addressed with comprehensive responses.
In January 2024, the Gender Apartheid Inquiry was convened as prompted by growing concerns over the segregation and oppression experienced by women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran under the rule of the Taliban and Mullahs, respectively. The Inquiry, led by a panel of British Parliamentarians, chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy of the Shaws KC, engaged Afghan and Iranian experts, as well as international experts who urged the acknowledgment of the situation as “gender apartheid.”
The Gender Apartheid Inquiry has heard testimonies of first-hand accounts of threats, intimidation, unfair trials, arbitrary detention and – in some instances – torture. Among others, the Inquiry has heard first-hand accounts of torture, including “needling” whereby needles would be put into the fingers and other torture practices of suffocating the victims/survivors. Others testified to the “endemic of suicide” in Afghanistan with an extremely high number of suicides among women and girls as a result of them being confined to their homes. The Inquiry has also heard how Iranian authorities are using technology to enforce the hijab laws and how the repression of those speaking out is not confined to the territory of Iran but manifests as transnational repression.
The Inquiry called for a formal recognition of the treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran as gender apartheid and other practical steps to provide meaningful assistance to women and girls in these countries that could help to elevate the unimaginable suffering experienced by them. As International Women’s Day is being celebrated around the world on March 8, one has to be reminded that in parts of the world, women’s rights are suppressed to the point that they are non-existent. In the words of Malala Yousafzai: “If we, as a global community, fail to stand in opposition to gender apartheid in Afghanistan, we send a devastating message to girls and women everywhere: That you are less than human. That your basic rights are up for debate. That we are willing to look away.” Women and girls cannot take their rights for granted.
