Afghan Women’s Protest Movements Urge Uzbekistan to Condition Ties With Taliban
Afghan women’s protest movements and civil activists have called on Uzbekistan’s authorities to openly condemn the Taliban administration’s restrictions on education and work, and to condition any political and economic engagement with the administration on compliance with international human rights obligations and the restoration of women’s basic rights.
The demand was made in a statement in response to a speech by Saida Mirziyoyeva, the daughter of Uzbekistan’s president and head of his office, at the UN General Assembly. The activists thanked Uzbekistan for its progress in women’s political participation and in allocating parliamentary seats to women, but said they regretted that Mirziyoyeva did not mention the situation of Afghan women and girls in her speech.
The statement said Afghan women have been deprived of the right to education, work and basic freedoms for more than five years. The activists said this situation stands in contrast to support for women’s rights in Uzbekistan, and warned that remaining silent in the face of widespread deprivation does not amount to neutrality.
They also criticised an approach that looks at developments in Afghanistan solely from an economic and security perspective, saying that ignoring human rights abuses gives an incomplete picture of the country and can lead to their normalisation. According to them, business and energy projects cannot create lasting stability while half the population is deprived of basic rights.
Women’s movements have called on regional countries to support recognising “gender apartheid” as an international crime, expand educational opportunities and ensure meaningful women’s participation in meetings on Afghanistan’s future. They described the repression of women as a threat to regional stability and said it should not be sacrificed to geopolitical interests.
In his speech, Mirziyoyeva said that viewing Taliban-controlled Afghanistan only through a security lens and treating it as a source of threat is not a solution. She also said leaving the people of Afghanistan alone would worsen the country’s problems.
