2 years in, activists warn backsliding for women, girls continues unabated in Taliban's Afghanistan

Nearly two years after Kabul fell to the Taliban, activists warn that human rights for women and girls continue to plummet in Afghanistan. They're pushing for democracies like Canada to adopt a tougher posture with the regime. 

"The Taliban are not going to be different just if the government is issuing strongly worded statements," said Friba Rezayee, the executive director of Women Leaders of Tomorrow, a Vancouver-based organization that advocates for Afghan womens' education and empowerment.

"What's happening in Afghanistan now is that the Taliban have a monopoly over violence. They want to keep the public and the people uneducated and ignorant so that they can promote their ideology," Rezayee said.

The hardline fundamentalist group seized control in August 2021, toppling the Western-backed government just days after U.S. troops pulled out of Afghanistan following 20 years of war. The Taliban has since imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law, despite early promises to the international community to respect some women's rights.

Millions in the country also remain in need of humanitarian assistance, with an estimated 64 per cent of households unable to meet basic needs, according to UNICEF.

Earlier this month, BBC Persian reported that girls as young as 10 are now being banned from school in some Afghan provinces, meaning education for women would now be off the table starting as early as Grade 3, though the Taliban issued a denial.

Girls were effectively banned from attending secondary school just weeks after the Taliban took over, at first insisting the move was temporary. Female students were then suspended from Afghanistan's universities last December.

"It hasn't been fully applied is our understanding," Sarah Keeler, the advocacy manager for Canadian Women For Women in Afghanistan, another Canadian aid organization, said of the new ban.

However, the group has heard from sources across the country that such a ban has started in different provinces, she said, so it's "happening on a widespread scale." 

Keeler's organization is supporting a push to brand the current situation in Afghanistan as "gender apartheid" — an international effort launched by Afghan and Iranian women last March on International Women's Day. 

"We want to see it recognized as a potential crime against humanity, and then there's an opportunity for this to be taken to the International Criminal Court," said Keeler.

An expert report to the United Nations Human Rights Council published last month on Afghanistan found restrictions on women and girls in the country could amount to gender apartheid.

Now, both Canadian groups are calling on Ottawa to work directly with Afghans on the ground to understand their needs and get them the necessary resources.

Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan said the federal government could do more to provide alternate means for education for women and girls, including help setting up digital learning opportunities.