Rebecca Manzi Meryl Streep spoke about the dramatic condition of women in Afghanistan, now left without rights due to the laws of the Taliban
@United Nations/YouTube
Meryl Streep made sure to bring the pathetic situation of Afghan women to light during an event parallel to the United Nations General Assembly held in New York. This is as she cited conditions faced under the Taliban regime, adding that since 2021, the Taliban reclaimed control of the country, women’s rights had utterly been eradicated.
Streep remembered how Afghan women, not so long ago, occupied important functions in society:
“In the 1970s, most public servants were women. More than half of the teachers, doctors, and lawyers were women.”
However, that reality became brutally different in the past decades, with the return to repressive politics that would deny women any freedom. She underlined this no-holds-barred reality with a striking comparison:
“Today, in Kabul, a female cat enjoys more freedoms than a woman does.”
The actress fumed using the striking metaphor of the difference in their rights: “A cat can go sit on the porch and feel the sun on her face,” while Afghan women were confined to their homes, robbed of all the most basic freedom of sending their bare faces out into the world.
“A bird can sing in Kabul, but a girl cannot”
She continued by referring to the very fresh decree, imposed by the Taliban regime, which prohibits women from having access to public places, such as parks and squares:
“Today, in Afghanistan, a squirrel has more rights than a girl, because the Taliban have closed public parks to women and girls.”
Streep’s speech climaxed in the wider analysis of the repression Afghan women are facing under the new Taliban laws that banned them from making their voices heard in public:
“A bird can sing in Kabul, but a girl cannot, and a woman cannot in public. This is extraordinary. It is suppression against natural law.”
It is with these strong and powerful words that the actress tried to attract the attention of the international community for urgent intervention in order to stop violence against women’s rights in Afghanistan. Other prominent figures of Afghan women activism were also in attendance of this event: Habiba Sarabi, former Minister of Women’s Affairs; Asila Wardak, former Director General of Human Rights and International Women’s Affairs.
