Several citizens of Afghanistan living in Paris staged a protest in response to the arrest of women and girls by the Taliban in Herat, describing these actions as part of the Taliban’s organized policy against women in Afghanistan.
In a statement issued on Saturday, June 13, the protesters said that in Afghanistan today, girls are denied education simply for being girls, and women are stripped of their most basic freedoms, including the right to work, move freely, and participate in public life, simply for being women.
They said that recent reports of the detention and abduction of women and girls in Herat reflect an intensifying climate of fear and pressure imposed on women.
The protesters stressed that these actions are not isolated incidents but part of an organized campaign to erase women from public life and impose sweeping restrictions on their existence.
The statement further noted that what is unfolding in Afghanistan is not merely a set of social restrictions but a system built on repression, terror, denial, and what the protesters described as “gender apartheid.”
The protesters also expressed concern over the Taliban being invited to international meetings without being held accountable for human rights violations, warning that such gestures risk lending legitimacy to ongoing repression.
They called on the French government, the European Union (EU), and the United Nations (UN) to take concrete action to halt the detention of women, secure the release of those already detained, and hold the Taliban accountable for human rights violations.
The protesters emphasized that silence in the face of the current situation in Afghanistan does not constitute neutrality but amounts to complicity in injustice and the continued suppression of women.
