The problem is invisible because there is often no data gathered by governments, no training for medical personnel around this issue, and no budgets allocated to prevent obstetric violence. By asserting dominance and seeking to reinforce patriarchal power through controlling women’s bodies and identities, the Taliban act as a gendered moral authority in Afghanistan, seeking to push women and girls ever further out of public life. This is part of a larger system Afghan women’s rights defenders and United Nations experts call “gender apartheid.” Women are forced indoors by being excluded from employment, education, and freedom of movement. Every time women find ways to bargain with these misogynistic rules, the Taliban crack down harder.
Plastics Reform, Regulation Urged by Los Angeles Reproductive Justice Group
We should also look at how changes to freedom of expression and censorship will affect women and LGBT people. At least 16 states already have provisions restricting LGBT content in schools. What type of education will children in schools get about human rights?
Alarmingly, malnutrition among pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and adolescent girls has surged by 25% since 2020 in the 12 countries hardest hit by the global food and nutrition crisis, affecting 6.9 million women and girls. In 2020, during the first Trump term, the US led and co-signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration. While the declaration’s full name includes the phrase “promoting women’s health and strengthening the family,” its real intention was to ban abortion and promote a stereotypical, traditional idea of women. Biden withdrew US support to the declaration, which has mostly been backed by governments with terrible women’s and human rights records. There is finally an understanding that women are mostly in charge of caring for children and supporting older people or for people who need support to carry out daily activities.
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Named for the green bandanas women wear during massive reproductive rights marches, the green wave is an example of activism that has occupied the streets, courts, legislatures, and kitchens. There is no space where women are not organized and ready to fight back. There’s a high risk of abortion rights being rolled back even further. After the Supreme Court ruling in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional abortion protection, many states quickly restricted or banned abortion. Other states took the opposite approach and enshrined abortion rights in their constitutions. But this administration could use federal power to further restrict abortions even in states with constitutional amendments and state laws protecting abortion rights.
Afghanistan: ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Senior Taliban Leaders
“No matter what tactics or power authorities use, we will still find ways to go out. On September 2, ISKP carried out a suicide attack outside the Taliban’s prosecution office, killing at least 21 people, most of them civilians. The killings took place in a remote border district between Daikundi, which has a predominantly Hazara population, and Ghor provinces. ISKP claimed responsibility for an April 29 attack in which a gunman opened fire on worshippers inside the Shia Sahib-u-Zaman mosque in Guzara district, Herat province, killing six people.
Every woman and girl has the right to be safe from gender-based violence
- Strict hijab and mahram (male guardian) regulations have impeded women from traveling for work or to receive medical treatment.
- As the world marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on Women – a landmark blueprint for gender equality – progress remains frustratingly slow.
- You can see these shortfalls in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group’s advance this year has triggered a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
- Previously, women and girls had to prove they resisted or fought their rapist.
The administration is also trying to bring its ideological crusade against DEI to the United Nations and its agencies, demanding that they follow the Trump administration’s example. But giving into these demands would undermine the rights of women, girls, and LGBT people around the world. Since July 16, the Taliban have arrested dozens of women and girls in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, for allegedly violating Taliban dress codes. The slew of arrests mark yet another continuation of the Taliban’s relentless attack on women’s autonomy, causing fear and intimidation for women and girls across Afghanistan. In July, the UK announced a policy change, introducing a route to allow some Afghans to reunite with their families who were evacuated to the UK after August 2021.
To address the root causes of sexual violence, we have to educate children without using gender stereotypes and address social and cultural practices that enforce the idea that one gender is superior to another. Sexual and gender-based violence is still normalized in many spaces, and it’s through non-sexist education that young people can learn what consent means and what healthy sexual relationships look like. To create truly equitable and effective health systems, women must be at the forefront – not just as caregivers but as leaders and decision-makers. Their leadership can drive systemic change, from advancing gender-responsive policies to securing investments in women’s health research. WHO reaffirms its commitment to championing these efforts, pushing for policies, funding, and research that ensure meaningful and lasting impact. We can expect issues on health care beyond abortion and contraception.
- LGBT people in Afghanistan faced persecution and serious ill treatment that could amount to torture because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
- We will hold the US government accountable just as we do with all governments everywhere.
- After Roe vs. Wade fell in the United States, women began organizing on a state-by-state basis to protect their rights.
- The coming years may also include attempts by the White House through Congress to undermine public health insurance programs like Medicaid, which tens of millions of women with low incomes rely on to pay for health care.
Clinical management of rape and intimate partner violence survivors
Under the Biden administration, the FDA has already been fighting to keep mifepristone available without new restrictions. But Trump could appoint a new head of the FDA, even though the current commissioner should stay in place until 2026. In the US, 63 percent of abortions are done in the first trimester with medication.
Violence against women remains a global crisis, severely impacting their health and well-being. One in three women worldwide experiences physical or sexual violence, and the health-care sector itself is not immune. Nearly a quarter of all workplace violence occurs in health and care settings, with women disproportionately affected. Additionally, social determinants such as income, education, and nutrition further widen the health gap for women and girls.
In most cases, Taliban authorities did not provide any information about the basis for these arrests or if those in custody would face trial. Detainees also lacked access to lawyers; in most cases even their family members were not allowed to visit them. Also, during his first term, Trump cut US funding for the United Nations Population Fund, which supports family planning worldwide. In Latin America, we have seen amazing progress on reproductive rights thanks to a coordinated cross-country movement called the green women and wine drinking limits wave.
Building a healthier world by women and for women is key to achieving gender equality
And when you take away women’s freedom of expression and association, it brings down whole communities, no matter people’s gender. The fact that women’s rights are human rights is not just a slogan, it’s a lived reality. You can see these shortfalls in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group’s advance this year has triggered a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Sexual violence is being committed by all parties to the conflict, but survivors have barely any support and services.
In August, the Taliban announced a new law on promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, which prohibits women from traveling or using public transportation without a male guardian. Under the law, women and girls are required to cover their faces in public and are prohibited from singing in public or letting their voices be heard outside the house. Abortion bans and restrictions have disproportionately harmed those already facing systemic barriers to care, including Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, people with low incomes, and people under 18. As Taliban abuses escalate, the international community has too often responded with silence, or even harmful steps to normalize these abuses, such as Russia’s recent decision to become the sole country recognizing the Taliban. The arrests deepen the Taliban’s enforcement of their outrageous August 2024 “vice and virtue” decree requiring women to completely cover their bodies, including their faces, in public at all times.
Ensure gender-based violence prevention and response measures are integrated and funded as an essential standard in humanitarian responses. Understanding and addressing the specific health risks and needs adolescents face today is key to improving their future health, as well as for broader social and economic stability. On May 18, ISKP issued a statement threatening NGOs, media, and foreign aid agencies. Those arriving in Afghanistan faced severe economic hardship, and a lack of housing and access to schools. On September 26, Jawed Kohistani, a well-known political analyst was detained by Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) in Kabul and was released on October 15. LGBT people in Afghanistan faced persecution and serious ill treatment that could amount to torture because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor requested the court issue arrest warrants against two Taliban leaders for the crime against humanity of gender persecution. Other countries are pressing Afghanistan to cease its violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Afghan women are leading a campaign to create gender apartheid as a crime against humanity, and several countries are supporting this call. Women and girls have been disproportionately affected by the healthcare crisis. The Taliban’s ban on women’s employment and restrictions on their movement outside the home have compounded the crisis by creating additional discriminatory obstacles to delivering and receiving assistance on an equal basis.