We, two human rights organizations, Femena and Rawadari, are writing to ask for your solidarity in the Afghan women’s struggle for liberation. As you know, Afghanistan is the worst women’s rights crisis in the world, and the only country on the planet where girls are banned from secondary education and young women are not allowed to attend universities. Since their return to power, the Taliban have issued over 100 edicts impacting all aspects of the rights and freedoms of women. In the latest attack on the rights and dignity of women, the Taliban instituted a law that criminalizes all aspects of women’s lives, including forbidding their voices from being raised and heard in public.
As political leaders around the world continue to fail in delivering for women and girls in Afghanistan, we are calling on women’s rights, gender equality, and social justice activists, intellectuals, writers, poets, artists, musicians, singers, and influencers to stand with us. As the Taliban are attempting yet again to silence and fully erase Afghan women, Afghan women continue to fight. In response to the latest law, the women of Afghanistan launched a campaign to sing songs and poetry, risking their lives to fight tyranny.
