Photograph: Acto UGT “Afganistán: refugio y derechos humanos frente al apartheid por razón de sexo”
Last 23 June, Brussels sat down with the Taliban regime once again. It was the first meeting of this kind since the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in 2021 and, although the European Commission insists on defining it as a “technical meeting”, it is difficult to ignore the political and symbolic dimension it entails.
According to the European institutions, the objective was to coordinate issues related to migration management and the return of asylum seekers from countries such as Germany or Belgium. However, this decision raises an inevitable question: where do the rights of Afghan women stand?
Talking to a regime does not necessarily mean recognising it. Diplomacy sometimes requires keeping channels open, even with governments that are deeply questioned. But when this dialogue takes place without the situation of women occupying a central place, the message being conveyed is worrying: security and migration control seem to have displaced the defence of human rights as a priority.
Since 2021, Afghan women and girls have progressively been deprived of fundamental rights. They have been prohibited from accessing secondary and university education, their access to employment has been restricted, their presence in public spaces has been limited and rules have been imposed that relegate them practically to invisibility. In recent weeks, new images of public punishments against women have also emerged, and measures that worsen their situation and further reduce their autonomy continue to be introduced.
Just a few years ago, Europe was a point of reference for thousands of Afghan women seeking protection and hope. Today, however, it runs the risk of conveying that there are rights whose defence can be relegated when other strategic interests come into play.
Precisely for this reason, different organisations and women from different parts of the world have raised their voices following the meeting held in Brussels. Among them is Netwomening, which in recent days has organised meetings with various associations to denounce this situation and demand that Afghan women once again occupy the place they should never have lost on the international agenda. The We Raise Our Voice campaign was born out of this commitment, an initiative that calls for their dignity, freedom and rights to be upheld.
While Afghan women continue to be erased from public spaces, Europe cannot afford to contribute to their also disappearing from political debate. Silence is never neutral.
Writer: María Cobo Albusac
