Resolution of the Afghanistan Women’s New Future Movement On the Occasion of the Fourth Anniversary of the Fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan – 15 August 2025

Four years ago, on 15 August 2021, with the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the country’s political, social, and legal structures were handed over by deal-makers to the armed Taliban group. This event marked the beginning of an era of gender apartheid, systematic human rights violations, and widespread crimes against the people of Afghanistan.

In these four years:

The right to education has been completely stripped from girls; all schools and universities have been closed to female students.

The right to work has been denied to women, removing them from all administrative, economic, and social sectors.

The right to freedom of movement and public presence has been severely restricted, with women banned from most public spaces.

Hundreds of women and girls have been arrested, tortured, sexually abused, or killed for peaceful protest.

Civil society activists, journalists, and political opponents have faced assassination, threats, enforced disappearances, and forced exile.

Gender-based discrimination has been institutionalized in Taliban laws and policies, amounting to gender apartheid and a clear violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

We firmly declare that:

The Taliban have committed crimes against humanity and must be recognized internationally as an extremist, bloodthirsty group enforcing gender apartheid.

This group has no political or legal legitimacy, and recognizing it constitutes a violation of the fundamental principles of international law.

The silence, inaction, and even collaboration of certain states and international organizations have contributed to the continuation of these crimes and made them complicit.

This resolution calls on all states, international organizations, and human rights bodies to:

Refuse to recognize the Taliban as a gender-apartheid regime and violator of human rights.

Immediately refer the Taliban’s crimes—especially crimes against women—to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Establish a permanent monitoring mechanism under the UN Human Rights Council to document human rights violations in Afghanistan.

Provide immediate, practical, and sustainable support to Afghan women, human rights defenders, and civil society—both inside the country and in exile.

Condition all international aid to Afghanistan on respect for human rights, particularly women’s and girls’ rights, and place such aid under full, impartial oversight by neutral bodies and states.

As part of the people of Afghanistan and defenders of Afghan women, we pledge to continue our political, civil, and legal struggle until the end of this regime of terror and misogyny, and the dismantling of gender apartheid in Afghanistan.

These four years have been years of darkness and crimes, but also years of resistance and truth-telling. The Taliban and their supporters must know that the people of Afghanistan—especially its women—will never retreat from their rights, and history will not forget these crimes and complicities.

Afghanistan Women’s New Future Movement