DI Fellow Discusses Afghan Women’s Rights and Her Journey of Dispalcement with Students in Madrid
By Staff Writer
On January 22, Displaced International (DI) Fellow Batol Gholami addressed over 100 students and educators at the IES Alpedrete Institute in Madrid, Spain. A refugee and displaced scholar from Afghanistan, Batol used her three-session talk to shed light on the ongoing gender apartheid imposed by the Taliban on Afghan women and girls. She discussed how these restrictions strip them of their basic human rights, including education, employment, and freedom of movement.
Sharing her personal journey, Batol highlighted the work of the Afghanistan Youth Leaders Assembly (AYLA), an initiative she founded to empower Afghan women and youth. She described how the Taliban’s oppressive policies have forced many Afghan families with daughters to flee the country. “The tragic events of August 2021 reshaped my journey. While in Pakistan, I was faced with a choice: to succumb to despair or to take action. I chose the latter,” she wrote in a recent article for Displaced Voices. “Through AYLA, we began offering voluntary online educational classes for girls inside Afghanistan. Amid the chaos, education became our lifeline—a way to resist oppression and sustain hope,” she added.
Since regaining control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have issued more than 100 decrees and edicts systematically denying women their rights. These measures include bans on secondary and tertiary education, medical training, and employment, as well as severe restrictions on their freedom of movement. During its 57th session from September 9 to October 11, 2024, the United Nations Human Rights Council expressed grave concern over these developments. The Council’s statement condemned the Taliban for institutionalizing discrimination through laws, policies, and practices targeting women and girls, such as the “Law on Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.”
The impact of these policies has driven forced displacement. Since 2021, over three million Afghans have been forced to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Many families have sought refuge in neighboring countries like Pakistan and Iran, often spending their life savings to ensure their daughters can access education. Others aim to secure pathways for resettlement in developed countries where their children’s futures are less precarious.
Batol Gholami’s talk in Madrid was a call to action. It underscored the urgent need for international efforts to combat gender apartheid and support displaced Afghan women and girls. DI invites individuals and organizations in Spain, Europe, and across the world to sign its global petition to help end these human rights violations and address one of the key drivers of forced displacement in Afghanistan.
