Introducing new language to formal U.N. bodies takes time and agreement—something many Afghan women and girls do not have under the harsh control of the Taliban.
A group of British parliamentarians are set to initiate an inquiry into the situation of women and girls in both Afghanistan and Iran. This marks an unprecedented development, as no nation has launched an investigation of this size regarding gender apartheid.
For over two years, scholars, advocates and organizations have been arguing that the Taliban has established a system that deliberately violates women and girls’ rights only on the basis of their gender.
While Afghanistan acknowledges the 1976 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (otherwise known as the Rome Statute), the statute lacks specific provisions regarding gender.
The statute calls upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, among other important UN documents. It provides a U.N.-agreed upon definition for “the crime of apartheid,” as well as functions to combat and punish those in which commit it.
However, the statute fails to specify gender in its distinct definitions, and fails to provide a definition of apartheid to its greatest scope, neglecting previous U.N. work.
One need only look at the situation in Afghanistan and Iran to see that gender apartheid is a well established regime, regardless of written word from a U.N. statute or formal inquiries from British Parliament.
At the start of Article 2 of the Rome Statute, the crime of apartheid is defined as “maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them,” addressing apartheid solely based on racial discrimination, excluding a gender-based lens.
As the British Parliament launches the inquiry, their goal is to “identify practical and meaningful steps that can be taken to address [the situation of situation of women and girls in Iran and Afghanistan], as a matter of urgent international concern” and to “assess how the situation … fits into the concept of gender apartheid.”
What this fails to do, however, is acknowledge the actualized claim that gender apartheid is already established within Afghanistan and Iran.
While the parliamentary inquiry will certainly take great strides in addressing gender apartheid, and perhaps establishing a clear definition within the context of the U.N., it is an important case study of Afghanistan and Iran to prove these occurrences against the current U.N. statutes, not to discover gender apartheid itself.
One need only look at the situation in Afghanistan and Iran to see that gender apartheid is a well established regime, regardless of written word from a U.N. statute or formal inquiries from British Parliament.
Take for example the most recent UNAMA report updating on the situation in Afghanistan regarding women’s rights.
The report, which outlines a vast number of injustices inflicted upon Afghan women and girls in the past three months alone, details rules and regulations set out by the de facto Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. These restrictions regulate the way that women and girls dress, their ability to obtain an education and even their capacity to move around freely.
The inquiry, once completed, would help to create a stable report of facts and findings which any nation could use to bring a case against Afghanistan in the International Court of Justice.
Under the Taliban regime, Afghan women are being severely discriminated against only because they are women. This claim is supported by the ways in which men continue to defy their Taliban imposed restrictions, and fail to be punished under the same harsh regime as women.
Should the British Parliamentary Inquiry successfully make valuable connections between current U.N. language on what constitutes apartheid, and the extreme parallels that the situations in Afghanistan and Iran hold with past conditions of apartheid (particularly the ones in South Africa in which the Rome Statute was established), there would be explicit reason for the introduction of language on gender as a basis for apartheid. Such an action would likely result in movement on the issue, as stipulated by the Rome Statute.
This, however, is not a requirement for the legitimization of gender apartheid. The very discrimination that is taking place in Iran and Afghanistan is enough on its own to constitute apartheid as the U.N. statute defines it, regardless if that discrimination should be based on race or gender.
Introducing new language to formal U.N. bodies takes time and agreement—something many Afghan women and girls do not have under the harsh control of the Taliban.
Advocates hope for an impactful and actionable outcome from the inquiry, one which directly addresses the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran. The inquiry, once completed, would help to create a stable report of facts and findings which any nation could use to bring a case against Afghanistan in the International Court of Justice.
Rest assured, all eyes are on the inquiry and its implications, and waiting to see if any nations decide to step up against what we know to be the already well-established gender apartheid in Afghanistan and Iran.
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