Stop excluding women in Afghanistan talks

The United Nations recently held a closed-door summit (from 1-2 May 2023) on Afghanistan bringing together the international community to have unified stances on human rights, governance, and counterterrorism.  

The meeting in Doha gathered representatives from 21 countries including 5 members of the Security Council, donors, the European Union, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation amongst other regional players and key allies. 

Talk with us, not about us 

It is deeply concerning that the critical voices of Afghan women were excluded in the discussions particularly with the continued regression of the rights of women and girls, reversing decades of progress.  

“Afghan women and girls have been denied access to essential services and are doing their best to remain visible despite the withdrawal of their rights- socially, economically, and politically. Our voices should be included in all international efforts focused on restoring justice in the country.’’ – Maryam Rahmani, Advisor – Afghanistan, Womankind Worldwide 

With the Taliban’s restrictive measures, women’s rights have been severely attacked with thousands of young girls and women banned from any participation in the public sphere. Any restoration efforts should at the very least meaningfully engage them. 

Our attention is particularly drawn to these siloed discussions where Afghan women and their organisations were not given a platform in echoing their concerns and co-creating critical solutions that would be substantial in claiming their fundamental rights which have been stripped away by the Taliban.  

‘’The exclusion of women from this critical discourse is an outrage. We call on the United Nations and the international community more broadly to uphold the rights of Afghan women to equal participation and for their unfettered voices to be instrumental to policy and decision-making in all matters which affect them.’’ – Caroline Haworth, CEO, Womankind Worldwide 

While the UN Secretary General has shown a firm commitment in addressing the pressing needs of the dire humanitarian situation in Afghanistan; we call for a participatory and unified approach that is inclusive of the voices of Afghan women. 

Our call to action 

We stand in solidarity with Afghan women and girls, women’s rights activists, women leaders, and human rights defenders  – by calling on the UN to: 

• Include Afghan Women representatives in the follow-up UN conference on Afghanistan. This will affirm their right to participation and ensure their voices are prioritised in these discussions. 
• Share in advance the agenda of the next meeting and open room for their expertise and contextual knowledge in shaping it. 
• Uphold conversations that are deliberate in addressing the equal participation of women and girls in all sectors. This should not only be a conversation centred on women working for the UN agencies. 
• Encourage member states to use an intersectional lens in concretely addressing women’s rights in education and decent work. 
• Talk with the women of Afghanistan, include them in all spheres of addressing systemic injustice but not have discussions about them, without them.  

We further call on the international community including the UK government to be deliberate in championing the inclusion of the voices of Afghan women not only in their delegations but in the shaping of formidable polices for the future of Afghanistan. The international media too has a key role to play by objectively amplifying the voices of women and girls, highlighting their issues, and adequately giving them a listening ear.