"Gender Apartheid": Taliban Approves Law in Afghanistan Requiring Women Remain Silent in Public

this is democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman with nuring she in Afghanistan the Taliban has approved a wide- ranging law that forces women to completely cover their bodies including their faces and remain silent in public the law will be inforced by the morality police who work under the ministry for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of Vice the law codifies many rules that have been in place since the Taliban returned to power 3 years ago the law has been widely condemned this is Ravina shamdasani spokesperson for the office of the UN High Commissioner for human rights these are Partners who are being completely silenced and and they're attempting to render them into Shadows um their voices are no longer permissible education is no longer permissible uh you cannot even see their faces this needs to stop and we need to continue talking about it we need to continue advocating for it and putting pressure on the authorities to listen Afghan women have been defying the taliban's edict and videos posted on social media or shared with human rights groups this woman living inside Afghanistan concealed her identity as she recorded herself singing you have silenced my voice until further notice you have imprisoned me in my home for the crime of being a woman [Music] for more we're joined by Sima Samar an Afghan human rights Advocate and medical doctor she was chairperson of the Afghanistan independent Human Rights Commission from 2002 to 2009 she also briefly served as minister of women's Affairs in the Afghan interim government in 2002 in 2012 she was awarded the right livelihood award in recognition of her work on women's rights writes she's now a visiting scholar at T's University her Memoir published earlier this year titled outspoken my fight for freedom and human rights in Afghanistan Sima Samar welcome back to democracy Now how sad ironic that your book is called outspoken when the Taliban have now said women cannot speak in public can you respond exactly what this law is is and what it means uh thank you so much Amy it's nice to be in your show thank you for having me here um yes I think this law further restrict all the rights that the woman had they already put a lot of restriction on women's rights they were not able to go get education they were not able to work outside of the house they were not able to to travel alone without M Maham they were not able to uh to walk with open faces but I mean they still the afon women were resisting on those but this law further restrict the rights and freedom of all the people but particularly the women they cannot even raise their voice even if they recite Quran you cannot see such a law in any other regime in this planet so I think it is the full isolation systematic erase of women from public life and as we call it it's gender appti I think they with this law they completed Jer aparte I don't know why the people around us the International Community do not see this and it's also was a reaction to the endorsement of the Taliban in Doha 3 because if you remember Doha 3 was the the meeting earlier six weeks ago in in Doha with the Taliban in a price that they brought the Taliban spokesperson and representative in Doha to meet with all the representative of the international communities and the United Nation organized this and they refused to add the Civil Society and women's group to the main meeting after a lot of pressure we just uh put on the UN they said okay at the end of the the actual meeting they will see some people from Civil Society so this is was a policy trying to normalize the Taliban so this law is a reaction and an answer to the normalization of the United Nation and some other countries who tries to say that the Taliban are the reality of Afghan and I would say yes the Taliban are the reality of Afghanistan but millions and millions of people in women in Afghanistan is also reality and this is a crimes against humanity it is gender aperti you don't have any other name I'm sorry I heard the the news about the Middle East U the the what I see it's the continuation of culture of impunity everywhere if if we could if you could also just comment you mentioned gender apartheid which is of course what many are saying that Taliban have uh uh created a state of gender apartheid in Afghanistan but what's your sense of how other people uh ordinary Afghans are responding to these measures a recent survey found that almost 70% want women's rights to be a central important uh feature of the focus of the government if you could respond yeah actually they have a regime of fear and oppression they treat people with the guno that's why they're so violent and nobody has a law and nobody is accountable so that's why the people are not um getting out of the house or protesting against this I keep saying that it is not the problem of the woman actually in Afghanistan it is the problem of every household what the people could say and do I think they have to more strongly and use their their civil rights and and start protesting against this inhuman on Islamic and all against all the international law and and principles and against all the the obligation of Afghanistan towards all these um conventions of Human Rights and the the violation clear violation of universal Declaration of Human Rights because practically there voice cannot hurt by any man who is not related maybe including the in-laws I mean practically it's a new style of slavery in my view s Samar if you can explain I just want to say you were head of the ministry of women's Affairs very briefly the ministry for women has now been changed into the ministry for the propagation of virtue and prevention of Vice the new law the new decree includ cludes women must fail themselves in front of all men even in front of non-muslim women it also permits brutal physical punishment beating intimidation imprisonment without due process where do you see this all going right now I think they they want to show that their actual opinion because there were some people advocating for the Taliban that they are Chang they learn from their past mistakes but I think it it is really the responsib ility not only of the Afghan people of course we have more responsibility than that is to raise awareness about the situation in Afghanistan and to make it serious to look serious I think it's not only the problem in Afghanistan it's going to spread in the other countries particularly on the on the regional countries we already see sign of of uh this kind of behavior and and empowerment of patriarchy in the region so I again who is financially backing the Taliban unfortunately everybody because they get some money this is I don't know the exact the exact number or amount they're getting money from different intelligence Services claiming that they are fighting against Dash and a month every week there is $40 million going to Afghanistan in order to keep the the that they're um fighting against Isis you mean yes yes and so that is that is really and they also have contract and get a lot of money from the mining in Afghanistan and they push different kind of put different kind of taxes on people even the tax is not really has a rule the inspector police or this Sharia inspector what they call it the M set they call it they have the right to punish the people and take as much as as they have to pay the shopkeep the the the people who the farmers it's not unfortunately the environment is so too bad and they people doesn't have a lot of a lot of um income from their farming they have we have to leave it there but we thank you so much for being with us and of course we'll continue to follow this issue SEMA Samar Afghan human rights Advocate Medical Doctor chair of the Afghanistan independent Human Rights Commission from 2002 to 2019 briefly served as minister of women's Affairs in the interim government of Afghanistan in 2002 was awarded the right livelihood award for recognition of her work with women's rights now at T's University her Memoir is called outspoken my fight for freedom and human rights in Afghanistan