Afghanistan women’s protest movements and civil society activists followed with close attention the speech delivered by Ms Saida Mirziyoyeva, Head of the Presidential Administration of our neighboring country, Uzbekistan. We recognize and value the progress made by the Republic of Uzbekistan in advancing women’s political participation, including the fact that women now hold 38 percent of seats in the country’s parliament. We regard this as an important step toward strengthening women’s participation across the region.

However, for precisely this reason, her complete silence on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan is deeply disappointing to us. When a woman in a position of leadership speaks at a global forum about the progress and political participation of women in her own country, we expect her also to remember the women just across the border who, for more than five years, have been denied education, university, employment, freedom of movement and participation in public life.

This clear contradiction between promoting women’s rights and political participation on one side of the Amu Darya and remaining silent about the systematic deprivation of women on the other side cannot be overlooked.

Our second concern is the way Afghanistan was presented in the speech.

Discussing Afghanistan primarily through the lens of economic integration, transit routes and regional security, without clearly addressing the systematic violations of women’s rights, the exclusion of women from public life and the denial of political participation to a large part of Afghanistan’s population, presents an incomplete picture of the country’s reality. It also risks contributing, even unintentionally, to the normalization of the current situation and to engagement that gives insufficient attention to human rights.

In the face of gender apartheid, silence is not neutrality. Silence can contribute to its normalization.

We do not deny the importance of regional cooperation, economic development, trade and shared security. But no railway, trade corridor or energy project can create lasting and inclusive stability while half of a country’s population is excluded. Sustainable security can only have meaning when the rights, freedoms and dignity of all citizens, including women and girls, are protected.

On this basis, Afghanistan women’s protest movements and civil society activists:

1. Call on the Government of Uzbekistan and its officials, particularly women leaders and officials, to explicitly and publicly condemn the bans on education, higher education and employment imposed on women and girls in Afghanistan.
2. Call for political and economic engagement with the Taliban to take place within the framework of international and human rights obligations and to be linked to tangible progress in restoring women’s rights to education, work, freedom of movement and participation in public life.
3. Call on countries in the region to support international efforts to recognize gender apartheid as a crime under international law.
4. Call for the expansion of scholarships and both in-person and online educational opportunities for Afghan women and girls so that their exclusion from education does not result in a lost generation.
5. Emphasize that Afghanistan’s women must have direct and meaningful representation in all regional and international discussions concerning the future of Afghanistan.

Solidarity among women knows no borders. We call on all women who have reached positions of leadership and decision-making in different countries to use their platforms and positions to defend the rights of their sisters in Afghanistan. The achievements of women in any country become more meaningful when women in neighboring countries are not being denied their most basic human rights.

Ultimately, silence in the face of widespread and systematic violations of the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan risks sending a deeply troubling message: that repression, the exclusion of women from society, and the systematic use of violence and restrictions may continue without a serious and sustained response from the international community.

The continuation of this situation threatens not only the lives and futures of Afghanistan’s women and girls, but may also strengthen extremist models and contribute to the normalization of the repression of women in other societies. From this perspective, the situation of women in Afghanistan is not simply an internal matter. The continued systematic repression of women can have consequences beyond Afghanistan’s borders, affecting human security, social and political stability, women’s rights, fundamental freedoms and democratic values across the region.

We expect Afghanistan’s neighboring countries, particularly Uzbekistan, to stand with the people of Afghanistan, especially its women and girls, and to raise their voices against their systematic exclusion and repression.

The rights of Afghanistan women’s must not be sacrificed for economic, security or geopolitical interests.