Mitra Mehran at the Security Council: Afghanistan under Taliban rule faces gender apartheid and organized repression

At the United Nations Security Council meeting, Afghan human rights activist Mitra Mehran called the current human rights situation in Afghanistan “gender apartheid” and warned that the Taliban have created a system based on structural repression and organized discrimination against women and vulnerable groups over the past five years.

In her speech, she said that the Afghan Justice Archive, by recording and documenting the Taliban’s decrees and policies, as well as the resistance of Afghan women, is trying to pave the way for accountability and justice in the future.

According to Mehran, since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have issued more than 230 decrees and instructions that have widely restricted the fundamental rights of women and girls. She emphasized that these restrictions cover various areas, including education, employment, freedom of movement, access to health services, and freedom of expression.

The human rights activist stressed that the repression of women in Afghanistan is not just a set of scattered restrictions, but part of a targeted and systematic policy to exclude women from the public sphere and control their lives.
Mehran also criticized the Taliban’s new laws, saying that some of these laws institutionalize gender discrimination, facilitate domestic violence, and impose heavy penalties on critics of the government. According to her, a number of new regulations have also facilitated child marriage and further restricted women’s right to divorce and separation.

She also described the situation of ethnic and religious minorities, especially Shia and Ismaili women, as worrying, adding that these groups face multiple forms of discrimination and deprivation.

Mehran went on to report numerous cases of arbitrary arrests, torture, sexual violence, and murder of women activists, saying that many women have been targeted for their civil and human rights activities.
She also warned of the humanitarian consequences of the Taliban's policies, saying that millions of people in Afghanistan are in need of humanitarian assistance, and that women and girls constitute a large part of the victims of this crisis. According to her, the restrictions imposed on female aid workers have also faced serious problems in the aid delivery process.
The human rights activist called on the international community to refrain from normalizing relations with the Taliban without accountability and respect for human rights, and emphasized the effective participation of women in all political processes related to Afghanistan.
Mehran finally called on the Security Council and international institutions to hold perpetrators of human rights violations in Afghanistan accountable by using legal and judicial mechanisms, including international investigative and judicial institutions, and emphasized that the situation in Afghanistan is a test of the credibility of the international system in defending human rights and justice.
Reporter Shahbano Noori