On Wednesday 18 September, MEPs debated a draft European Parliament resolution condemning the serious decline in the rights of women and girls in the country, reinforced by the adoption of the new law on the “promotion of virtue and prevention of vice” in Afghanistan (see EUROPE 13468/5).
At a press conference the previous day, Mounir Satouri (Greens/EFA, French), chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights, reiterated the EU’s responsibility to protect Afghan refugee women and urged that relations with the Taliban regime should not be normalised.
The motion for a resolution, which will be voted on in the Chamber the day after the debate on Thursday 19 September, also includes a call to recognise gender apartheid as a crime against humanity.
“Inside our country, we don’t even count as human beings. There is virtually no relationship between us as citizens and the state. Little by little, Afghan women are being erased from Afghan society”, declared one of the four Afghan activists present before the European press.
The women called on the EU to recognise their efforts and “show courage” to support the opposition to the Taliban regime and pave the way for a political alternative.
“Let’s give Afghan women platforms where their voices will have international resonance. (...) These attacks on Afghan women are attacks on the universal values of freedom, justice and human dignity”, said Isabel Wiseler-Lima (EPP, Luxembourgish), one of the authors of the resolution.
The draft resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/dh3 (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)