Afghan women fight gender apartheid

A DELEGATION of exiled Afghan women is in South Africa for a week-long visit, on a mission to share their stories, and to create a knowledge and insights-sharing platform in their search for solidarity to end gender apartheid.

- DIANE NAIDOO

Malala Fund, in partnership with End Gender Apartheid Campaign, the Civic Engagement Project and Lawyers for Human Rights, has hosted a series of roundtable dialogues and discussions with some of South Africa’s leading human rights activists as well as members of the judiciary.

At a roundtable hosted at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, panellists included Professor Thuli Madonsela, Professor Farid Esack, Judge Margie Victor, and three Afghan women who are part of the delegation.

Escaping a forced child marriage. Suffering a broken nose for lifting a Burka in public. Shutting down beauty salons and schools. Keeping women and girl children ‘in line’ with physical punishment.

These were not sub-plots of a movie; instead, the horrifying truth of the lived experiences of the Afghan women in the room.

An activist and human rights defender for nearly 30 years, *Horia said she believes the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan is a silent tsunami: "This is not our religion, this is not Islam, this is the Taliban. In Afghanistan, women who are found guilty of ‘moral crimes’ are subjected to ‘honour violence, in the form of public beatings, torture and imprisonment.

Horia said that the delegation is in South Africa to draw on the experience of women who were subjugated under apartheid, and to learn more about the role the judiciary, civil society and the media could play in their fight for freedom.