PARIS — Maud Petit, a deputy in the French National Assembly, criticized the Taliban’s policies, saying they are systematically making women and girls invisible, isolating them from public life “until they disappear” and questioning how such actions are still possible in the 21st century.
In a post on the social media platform X, Petit wrote, “How is such a thing still possible in the 21st century?”
Since regaining control of Afghanistan in 2021, Taliban have imposed increasingly severe restrictions on women and girls. Girls have been banned from attending school beyond sixth grade, and universities are now off-limits to female students.
The Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has enforced rules, approved by their leader, that prohibit women from appearing in public spaces, deem women’s voices as “awrah” (improper), and mandate silence in public settings.
Most recently, the Taliban’s leader issued a decree ordering that windows in homes must not face neighboring houses, ostensibly to ensure that women and girls are not visible.
Human rights organizations and international experts, including Richard Bennett, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, have repeatedly denounced the Taliban’s policies as oppressive and misogynistic. Critics describe the measures as a form of gender apartheid aimed at the systematic removal of women and girls from Afghan society.
“The Taliban’s policies represent a calculated effort to erase women from all aspects of public and social life,” said one human rights advocate.
As the Taliban continues to tighten its control, calls for stronger international action to address the human rights crisis in Afghanistan have intensified.
