RAGAA: Raising our voice against gender apartheid in Afghanistan
We present RAGAA – Raise Against Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan, an initiative created in collaboration with the association People Help (PH) to expose, document, and denounce the systematic violence suffered by women and girls in Afghanistan. RAGAA arises in response to the urgent need to confront a deeply institutionalized system of oppression whose impact constitutes a crime against humanity, still not formally recognized under international criminal law.
At RAGAA, we raise our voice to denounce the dramatic situation faced by Afghan women, victims of a regime that has established a true gender apartheid. These are not isolated incidents, but deliberate State policies aimed at the total subordination of women, denying them dignity, autonomy, and freedom. Since the Taliban seized power in 2021, Afghan women have been deprived of their fundamental rights: they have been denied access to education, work, political participation, and public life, while laws and restrictions have been imposed to perpetuate their exclusion and vulnerability.
The concept of apartheid, understood as an institutionalized system of domination and segregation, is not limited to racial or ethnic dimensions, but can also manifest as a form of structural violence based on gender. The systematic exclusion of Afghan women constitutes a pattern of oppression that violates fundamental rights and demands recognition, action, and immediate accountability from the international community.
RAGAA is founded on the conviction that silence and indifference in the face of these violations amount to complicity in impunity. Confronting this reality, we demand the formal recognition of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity, the immediate activation of international and national mechanisms to investigate, punish, and prevent these crimes, and the adoption of effective international protection measures for persecuted women, ensuring access to refuge, safety, and support.
We also call for the full, active, and safe participation of Afghan women in reporting processes, policymaking, and social reconstruction. Any institutional response will remain insufficient unless women — the direct victims of these violations — are placed at the center of decision-making.
We are committed to making the reality of gender apartheid in Afghanistan visible, promoting rigorous documentation and broad dissemination of its impacts, and supporting Afghan women in their pursuit of justice, protection, and recognition. To this end, we will work in collaboration with partner organizations and feminist movements that share the mission of eradicating all forms of oppression based on gender.
Our three main goals:
- Legal recognition of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity.
Through rigorous documentation of discrimination, violence, and exclusion, we foster the legal and political debate required to incorporate gender apartheid into international legal frameworks. - Effective international protection for Afghan women.
We promote the adoption of agile and safe mechanisms that guarantee the right to receive humanitarian assistance, refuge, and protective measures against imminent threats. The severity of the violence in Afghanistan demands a decisive international response. - Access to national and international justice.
We support legal strategies and advocacy initiatives that enable victims and their representatives to access courts, international bodies, and accountability mechanisms.
The situation in Afghanistan requires a firm, coordinated, and human-rights-based international response. RAGAA not only denounces violence, but also raises awareness and mobilizes key actors — governments, international organizations, civil society, and global citizens — to commit to defending the rights of Afghan women.
Gender apartheid is a crime against humanity. Its recognition and prosecution are not only legal imperatives, but moral obligations. No society that aspires to justice can tolerate the structural and systematic subordination of women. The systematic violence against women and girls in Afghanistan cannot be ignored. Indifference in the face of this crisis means allowing impunity to continue.
With RAGAA, we raise our voice alongside Afghan women: there will be no justice while silence prevails, nor freedom where gender apartheid is tolerated. Every action counts in ending impunity and ensuring justice.
