Taliban leaders enforce brutal restrictions against women, except for their own daughters

“Do unto all men as you would wish to have done unto you; and reject for others what you would reject for yourself.” 

—Abu Dawud, Hadith, Islam 

In Afghanistan in 2020, the landscape of women’s lives bore little resemblance to what we witness today under Taliban rule. Between 2001-2021, when Afghanistan experienced respite from Taliban rule, significant strides were made in advancing women’s rights. Girls had access to education, women entered the workforce, and the government institutionalized protections for women’s rights, including raising the marriage age to 18. Voter turnout among women soared, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs flourished, Adela Raz became Afghanistan’s first female U.N. ambassador, and women assumed roles in security, policymaking, the judiciary and all levels of government.

The present reality starkly contrasts with this progress. Today, women are effectively imprisoned within their homes, marginalized from Afghan society at large. Under Taliban rule, they are prohibited from venturing outside without a male companion, compelled to veil themselves entirely, deprived of educational and occupational opportunities, barred from participating in public life and girls are being pushed into marriage as young as nine years old. Between August 2021 and January 2024, the Taliban had issued 185 edicts and public statements, 124 of which target women. Those daring to challenge these edicts face brutal repercussions, including violence, incarceration and torture at the hands of the Taliban. At the end of March 2024, the Taliban announced they would resume stoning women to death for certain offenses. 

Remarkably, even as Taliban leaders zealously enforce these regressive measures, their own daughters enjoy privileges denied to Afghan women. Top Taliban officials send their own daughters to school in Qatar, Pakistan and other countries to access an education, and enjoy fundamental freedoms. They do not want their daughters subject to their own violent rule. One Taliban commander in Quetta runs such a private madrassa for daughters of members; a similar establishment exists in the Ghazni province. Others send their daughters to private schools and universities abroad, where many are taught in English and STEM skills. Meanwhile the Taliban ruthlessly suppress women advocating for their right to education and connection with the wider world, subjecting them to imprisonment, torture and public floggings.

While Taliban leaders occasionally cloak their actions in religious rhetoric, their selective application of Quranic teachings exposes their true motives. Despite Islam’s emphasis on the value of education for all, regardless of gender, the Taliban distort religious texts to justify their oppressive policies. Western perceptions often mistakenly conflate such atrocities with cultural or religious practices, inadvertently legitimizing the Taliban’s agenda. (This bias exists despite all major religious texts containing similar problematic language). The current actions of Taliban leaders themselves reveal that this is not a matter of religion or culture—it is flagrant gender apartheid, a criminal affront to humanity.

The incongruity of Taliban leaders exempting their own daughters from the draconian measures imposed on Afghan women underscores the hypocrisy inherent in their ideology. If their beliefs were genuinely rooted in culture or religion, they would have no qualms applying these principles within their own households. Their reluctance to subject their daughters to such treatment speaks volumes. So why can they terrorize our daughters? This question demands not just an answer but action—an unwavering commitment to stand against such injustice and defend the rights of Afghan women.

Earlier this month (April 2024), in New York, the global community convened to deliberate on the draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention. Amidst the discussions, several nations, including the United States, Malta, Austria, Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, Chile, Iceland and Australia pushed for the inclusion of an offense that we are seeing unfold in Afghanistan, that has yet to be codified: gender apartheid. Gender apartheid is a system of governance, based on laws and/or policies, which imposes systematic segregation of women and men and may also systematically exclude women from public spaces and spheres. It codifies the subordination of women, and permeates into all places, public and private. Yet to be formally codified, gender apartheid is steadily gaining recognition within the international legal framework. Leading international experts have called for the codification of Gender Apartheid under Article 2 of the Crimes Against Humanity Convention with 300+ organizations urging that this happen on an expedited timeline, before the end of 2024. Taliban leaders may have exempted the women in their lives from the harsher aspects of their rules, but recognizing this offense is an important first step holding them accountable for the flagrant violations of human rights they have imposed on the vast majority of Afghan women.  

Yalda Royan is a women’s rights activist and founder of Sisterhood and Solidarity, an organization focused on amplifying the experiences of Hazara Afghan women and former members of the security services and advocating on their behalf. Molly Giguiere is a second-year law student at the University of San Francisco School of Law enrolled in the International Human Rights Clinic and president of the Women’s Law Association.