Helping women and girls in Afghanistan

WDI calls on the international community to open reserved corridors for Afghan women and children

Women's Declaration International is calling on the UN and the international community to:

  • Open humanitarian corridors specifically for women, girls and children who need to leave Afghanistan
  • Support women’s rights organisations such as the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) who intend to stay in Afghanistan and resist
  • Use any possible influence to prevent the Taliban’s assaults on women and women’s rights
  • Protect women all over the world who are persecuted on the basis of their sex

We are concerned at the relatively low number of female political refugees reaching Europe, and ask the UN to focus its efforts more closely on protecting women, girls and children who are often in the greatest danger from the Taliban; and to open protected humanitarian corridors to allow those women and children a passage to safety.

We ask the UN to allocate resources to support the brave women who have chosen to stay and resist the Taliban and their organisations, such as the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

The Taliban regime is not a legitimate government. Not only are women’s rights curtailed by the Taliban to such an extent that they are treated as non-people in their own country, but they face physical punishment, imprisonment and death for the most minor contraventions of intensely misogynist rules. Women and girls throughout Afghanistan are at constant risk of rape and sexual slavery as Taliban fighters demand to be rewarded with sexual access to them.

In different degrees and respects, all women in the world undergo similar forms of oppression under male domination. The Afghan women’s struggle for liberation is the same struggle women face everywhere. WDI calls on the UN and national governments to protect women and girls all over the world who are persecuted and oppressed because of their sex; and to extend special refugee status and protection to all women and girls fleeing male violence.

WDI is looking into ways to help our sisters in Afghanistan - in the mean time, please sign these petitions and consider donating to one of these organisations. If you know of any other organisations or efforts to help please let us know and we will share them.

Petitions:

Sign the UK petition to protect Afghan women and girls' freedom and safety

Sign the Italian petition to create humanitarian corridors

Sign the Australian petition to bring vulnerable Afghan families to Australia

Petition to the Spanish Prime Minister to prosecute Taliban crimes before the International Criminal Court and grant asylum to afghan women in Spain

Call to the international community (in several languages): Abrid las puertas a Afganistán y las afganas / Let's open our doors to Afghanistan and Afghan women / Ouvrons nos portes à l’Afganistan et les femmes afganes / Afghanistan und den Afghaninnen die Türen öffnen

Support these organisations:

Pledge to support Afghan Airlift

Women's Regional Network

Afghanistan Libre

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan

Afghan Women's Mission

European Network of Migrant Women

Women for Afghan Women

Afghanistan: Local Giving

Swedish Committee for Afghanistan

CARE International - one of the world's largest humanitarian organisations with a long history of helping people in Afghanistan

International Federation of Journalists solidarity campaign (for journalists)

Georgetown Institute of Women, Peace and Security - How to Save the Lives of Afghan Women

SAWA - Australia

Mahboba's Promise

Women's International Solidarity Australia

Articles and statements:

European Network of Migrant Women statement on the situation in Afghanistan and the rights of Afghan women and girls

Statement from the European Women's Lobby

Open letter to the German government from Trauma and Prostitution

Radical feminists rescue Afghan women - 4W article

Statement from FILIA - We Stand with the Women and Peoples of Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union

What Women's Advocacy Groups Worldwide are Doing for Afghan Women - Josie Fischel

Afghanistan and Gender: why can't women identify out of their oppression? Jaclynn Joyce

The World Must not Look Away as the Taliban Sexually Enslaves Women and Girls - Laura Hood (English)

El Mundo no Puede Mirar Hacia Otro Lado Mientras Los Talibanes Esclavizan Sexualmente a Mujeres y Ninas - Laura Hood (Espagnol)

Women’s Refugee Commission Urges Biden Administration to Immediately Evacuate Afghan Women’s Rights Activists, Families Trapped in Afghanistan