Silenced in Kabul, Heard in Hollywood: Afghan Women’s Rights Lag Behind Animal Welfare, Says American Actress
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American actress: Animals have more rights than Afghan women
Source: backchina.com
The issue of protecting women’s rights in Afghanistan received widespread attention during the United Nations General Assembly. According to reports from CNN, Agence France-Presse and others on the 26th, the famous American actress Meryl Streep, who holds multiple Oscars, Cannes, and Golden Globe trophies for best actress, condemned She said that the actions of the Afghan Taliban were “like the erasure of the entire female gender.” She believed that it was necessary to speak out for Afghan women.
Streep was referring to her speech at the “Involving Women in Afghanistan’s Future” conference at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Monday. The meeting discussed the “morality law” issued by Afghanistan last month, which includes requiring Afghan women to remain silent in public and not to sing or recite, because female voices are considered “intimate voices” in the teachings.
According to reports, Streep criticized at the meeting: “Today, in Kabul, a female cat has more freedom than a woman. A cat can sit on the porch in front of his house and feel the sun shining on him. Feelings on the face, it’s okay to chase squirrels in the park. Squirrels also have more rights than Afghan women because the Taliban ban women from public parks. Birds can sing in Kabul, but Afghan girls can’t. It’s incredible. Yes, this is a suppression of the laws of nature.”
According to CNN reports, as Streep’s words caused reactions on social media, on Thursday local time, four countries, Germany, Australia, Canada (special topic) and the Netherlands, condemned Atta for violating the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. ”, claiming that “unprecedented” action will be taken against Atta to combat his “systemic oppression” of Afghan women. Afghanistan is a party to the convention, which was signed by the Karzai government in 2003.
At present, the four countries have not specified the measures they may take. The report quoted analysis from Human Rights Watch as saying that the four countries may initiate legal action at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
On the same day, Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesman for Afghanistan’s interim government, rebutted in a statement that it was “ridiculous” to accuse Afghan leaders of sexism.
“Human rights are protected in Afghanistan and no one is discriminated against,” the statement added. “Unfortunately, someone is trying to spread anti-Afghan propaganda through the mouths of some women to make the situation look bad.”
According to the content published on the official website of the United Nations, in the latest “moral code” launched by the Taliban in August, Afghan women are also required to always wear veils in public places and are prohibited from looking at men who are not related to them by blood or marriage. Mixed living arrangements between men and women who are related to each other further restrict their movement without male relatives, and stricter regulations such as covering the whole body and face when they have to leave the house are still required in “last resort” circumstances.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern that the moral laws promulgated by the Taliban consolidate the policy of “total obliteration” of women’s presence in public spaces, and called for the immediate repeal of this law. “These laws suppress women’s voices and deprive them of their rights.” of autonomy is actually an attempt to turn them into faceless and voiceless shadows.”
According to Agence France-Presse, at the United Nations Security Council meeting held on September 6, 12 council members led by the United States voted to condemn the new moral law promulgated by the Afghan Taliban as a violation of basic human rights and a serious violation of the freedom of women and girls.
In the three years since the Taliban came to power, although Afghanistan has gotten rid of the influence of the US military, it has achieved certain results in drug control, and post-war reconstruction has begun to bear fruit. However, many orders issued by the interim government that suppressed and eroded the rights of women in the country have been widely criticized.
On August 15, 2021, the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan. When they took over the power, they promised to implement milder laws on women than during their rule in the 1990s, claiming that Afghan women enjoy freedom in areas controlled by the Taliban and can participate in society normally. Life. But soon after, strict control measures began to be implemented, severely reducing the space for Afghan women to move.
These restrictions include denying Afghan women the right to receive primary school education beyond grade six, banning women from public spaces such as parks and gyms, increasing restrictions on women’s participation in public and private workplaces, and banning them from being employed by the United Nations. and other aid organizations.
A series of decisions triggered strong reactions from the international community. Many Islamic countries around the world have also “cut ties” with Afghanistan on the issue of safeguarding women’s equal rights and interests, and called on the interim government to revoke relevant measures as soon as possible. The United Nations denounced the relevant ban as “an unreasonable violation of human rights. These behaviors of excluding and suppressing women have brought great suffering to the Afghan people and will seriously hinder Afghanistan’s development.”
A United Nations report said that the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan is “the worst in the world”. Under the rule of the Taliban, women and girls in Afghanistan have been systematically restricted in their human rights and suffered severe discrimination, which may constitute “gender segregation”. ” and “gender persecution.”
The “Afghanistan Socioeconomic Outlook 2023” report released by the United Nations Development Program pointed out that severe restrictions on women’s ability to study and work have exacerbated Afghanistan’s disastrous socioeconomic situation and brought devastating consequences to the people.
The UNDP representative in Afghanistan pointed out that the Taliban’s decision to severely restrict women’s ability to study and work is an important reason for the country’s economic difficulties. “Economic growth and poverty reduction are impossible without women. This is the message we try to convey when communicating with de facto authorities.”
In fact, women’s issues in Afghanistan existed long before the Taliban first came to power, and the social roots of gender inequality in Afghanistan are very complex.
On September 18, local time, the United Nations Security Council held a public meeting on Afghanistan. China’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Fu Cong said that Afghanistan’s recently promulgated “Morality Law” has attracted international attention and called on the Afghan interim government to pay attention to the reasonable concerns of the international community and take practical measures. Protect the basic rights of women and girls.
Fu Cong pointed out in his speech that last month, the Afghan interim government celebrated its third anniversary in power. Faced with the “mess” left by the hasty withdrawal of foreign troops, the Afghan authorities worked hard to stabilize the security situation, improve the economy and people’s livelihood, and strengthen regional and international dialogue and cooperation. These Good momentum does not come easily.
Fu Cong said that women’s rights in Afghanistan cannot be realized in a vacuum, and engaging in “microphone diplomacy” will not help solve the problem; he hopes that the international community will view the situation in Afghanistan comprehensively and objectively, support Afghanistan’s peaceful reconstruction and economic recovery, and help Afghanistan eliminate instability and instability. The root cause of insufficient development is to create favorable conditions for protecting the rights and interests of all people, including women.