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22. Three years on: How Afghanistan's crisis has been rendered invisible

September's stark reminder: Afghanistan's forgotten crisis and global silence enabling Taliban tyranny and apartheid against afghan women.

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With the spotlight now on Gaza and Ukraine, and three years after the controversial military and political withdrawal from the region, the international community's silence on the crisis that has devastated Afghanistan is embarrassing. Not even the US election campaign has revived memories of a country that, abandoned and under the control of terrorists, has literally gone back decades with the return of an authentic Islamic fascism that feeds on tyranny, oppression, human rights violations, inhumanity, intolerance and violence.

On the ground, the (literal) silence sweeping Afghanistan is quite simply a form of apartheid against half the population, although it has not yet been formally catalogued as such under international law, despite years of activism by civil society groups and some states. Although this denial of freedom mainly affects women, Afghan men are also considerably targeted, as they are prevented from thinking, acting or advocating outside the rules imposed by the regime (the responsibility of Afghan men for complacency and for denouncing the Taliban is an interesting angle to analyse, but we'll leave that for another edition of the newsletter; I'd like to know more about the men who proactively denounce the regime, so if you know of any interesting stories, please send them to me).

As reported by several media outlets, with a set of new totalitarian restrictions announced in recent months that categorically prohibit Afghan women from travelling without a male escort, from speaking in public, from removing compulsory covering, including the face, and from maintaining contact between non-family members, Afghanistan has become an actual surveillance state in record time. The new level of repression includes the hiring and coercion of women themselves to become spies responsible for monitoring public spaces and social media, and reporting uncovered faces – a situation that perpetuates crimes against humanity and which the feared Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice itself sponsors.

Here the international community's silence is not due to a lack of policies and legal mechanisms, but to inertia. International western media outlets could also play a bigger role in denouncing and reporting what’s going on in the country. As a matter of relative urgency, it would be useful for Western democratic states to vehemently and frequently denounce what is happening in Afghanistan, not only from a humanitarian point of view, but also as a political and foreign policy concern and priority. The political and humanitarian future of the country is uncertain, as is the type of leadership and government that the Taliban will develop as international pressure increases. This is particularly important because, as per this piece in Foreign Affairs, “normalising relations with the Taliban normalizes female suffering”, and it is imperative to avoid any political-diplomatic action that, directly or inadvertently, could formally recognise or reinforce the Taliban's sense of validation and impunity. In particular, especially with the presidential elections looming, the US is being watched to ensure that it maintains pressure points on the Taliban. In my opinion, the EU-27 countries have a similar responsibility. This is just as important, if not more so, in the year 2024, when we are witnessing significant setbacks in human rights.

Following several high-level awareness-raising efforts, another difficult but very significant step includes finally cataloguing the Afghan situation as an apartheid crime against women and, at the same time, as a crime against humanity. From Malala Yousafzai to the UN, from Amnesty International to the grassroots ‘End Gender Apartheid’ campaign, there are a multitude of efforts to raise awareness in this regard. Also, a repressive afghan leadership at this stage and level cannot be combated and defeated with hollow declarations on the UN portal, nor with multilateral meetings where civil society is excluded. Lastly, it is imperative that a group of countries, and in this case I favour the EU countries, succeed in bringing the Taliban before the relevant international courts (I'm not an expert in international law, but I'm pretty sure that several different criminal cases should be brought before different courts in this Taliban context).

It is a moral and democratic imperative for the West to use all available international legal instruments to put an end to these human rights violations, which systematically and invisibly sink the status of human life and women’s rights to the lowest level ever known.

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BRAIN FOOD & TOOLS

  • From anti-war activist to leading NATO: Jens Stoltenberg reflects on life and career in exclusive exit interview @ CNN Amanpour

  • Interview (in portuguese) with Canada’s Ambassador for Women, Peace and Security, Jacqueline O’Neill, on the occasion of her first visit to Portugal @ Expresso.

  • Transatlantic Relations in a Year of Decision with GMF’s Ian Lesser @ FLAD (event)

  • Election 2024: Where The Candidates Stand On The Top 5 Issues Impacting Women @ FORBES

  • How the Democrats became the party of patriotism @ The Atlantic

  • Will Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris matter? @ The Economist

  • Documentary: Ao Serviço do Meu Povo - Amílcar Cabral @ RTP

  • Nominations for the 2024 Paula Kantor Award @ ICRW

  • Military must move beyond integration to inclusion @ Defense One

  • Foreign Policy & AI Forum @ German Federal Foreign Office

  • NATO’s Future with Jens Stoltenberg @ Foreign Policy 

  • 2024 AI & Tech Summit @ POLITICO 

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