Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, emphasised to Afghanistan International that the European Union must remain vigilant about Afghanistan's situation, particularly regarding the violations of women's rights by the Taliban.
Metsola unequivocally condemned the gender apartheid prevailing in Afghanistan. Her remarks came in the wake of discussions with European Union leaders in Brussels on Thursday.
Metsola was responding to questions from Musadiq Parsa, a journalist with Afghanistan International.
Describing the plight of Afghan women as a stark form of gender apartheid, Metsola expressed her condemnation and recounted encounters with courageous Afghan women who sought refuge in Portugal to escape the Taliban's oppression.
She underscored the EU's responsibility to ensure that the dire circumstances in Afghanistan, especially the severe breach of women's rights by the Taliban, are not overshadowed by other global crises.
Human rights advocates have long characterised the Taliban's systematic curtailing of Afghan women's fundamental rights as gender apartheid, advocating for its formal acknowledgments.
Throughout their dominion over Afghanistan, extending beyond two and a half years, the Taliban have systematically stripped women of essential liberties, spanning education, employment, sports, travel, and the freedom to engage in public life, through comprehensive restrictions and prohibitions.
Advocates for women's rights assert that beyond recognising gender apartheid, there should be international legal action against the Taliban for their role as perpetrators of women's rights violations. Yet, concrete measures for the official recognition and accountability of gender apartheid in Afghanistan and globally remain to be enacted.
