TORONTO — Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the UN, during his remarks at the Free Speech Center’s event on World Press Freedom Day in Toronto, described the current conditions for women in Afghanistan as a form of “modern gender apartheid”.
Speaking to a room that included Afghan journalists and media advocates — many of them women in exile — Rae emphasized the systemic and deliberate nature of the Taliban’s policies, which he said have stripped women of basic rights.
“Women in Afghanistan are not allowed to go out unless accompanied by a man. They can’t work. They can’t even go to the hospital unless a man takes them there,” Rae said. “Girls past the age of 11 or 12 are denied education, denied schooling, denied a future.”
He said the restrictions were not only oppressive, but part of a broader structure of gender-based repression.
“That is a form of oppression which, frankly, really means we’re living in a situation of modern apartheid — of a gender apartheid,” Rae said. “It discriminates and oppresses women for one reason alone: because they are women.”
Rae delivered his remarks at a session marking World Press Freedom Day, where Afghan journalists and international media experts gathered to discuss the challenges of reporting under authoritarian regimes. The conference focused in part on the plight of Afghan journalists under Taliban rule, where women face near-total exclusion from public life.
His comments added to growing international concern that Taliban policies — including barring girls from secondary education and restricting women from working in nongovernmental organizations and most public roles — may constitute violations of international human rights law.
Rae called for global solidarity with Afghan women and journalists, saying the repression demands more than just condemnation.
“This is a special fight, and a special struggle. And it’s one we must continue to engage in — not just with words, but with action,” he said.
