DI Fellow Gholami Speaks at UN Human Rights Council, Calls for Action on Gender Apartheid
By Staff Writer
Geneva — Displaced International (DI) Fellow Batol Gholami addressed the 5th Meeting of the 60th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday, delivering a stark account of the Taliban’s escalating assault on Afghan women’s rights. She described how women face severe restrictions, deepening segregation, and systematic removal from employment—including at the UN and international aid agencies.
Gholami condemned the Taliban’s ban on women aid workers during the recent Kunwar earthquake, which killed more than 2,200 Afghans and injured thousands. She noted that many women and children died because no female medical staff or aid workers were permitted to respond. “Expressions of solidarity alone do not save lives,” she told the Council, urging members to hold Taliban leaders accountable, codify gender apartheid as a crime against humanity, and establish an independent investigative mechanism to collect and preserve evidence of crimes against the Afghan people.
Her call was reinforced in a recent op-ed by DI President Ambassador Ashraf Haidari, published in The Diplomat. Haidari argued that Afghanistan’s gender apartheid has turned natural disasters into “man-made tragedies,” stressing that Afghan women and children bear the heaviest toll because they are denied access to female aid workers and doctors. He further warned that gender apartheid is not only a violation of rights but also a driver of displacement, forcing Afghan families into exile when survival at home becomes impossible.
The discussions in Geneva and the warnings from Afghan advocates converge on a single point: gender apartheid is fueling one of the world’s most urgent displacement crises. Unless the international community acts decisively to end this system of oppression, Afghan women and children will continue to pay the highest price, and forced migration will only deepen. Ending gender apartheid is not only a matter of justice—it is essential to halting the cycle of suffering and displacement.
