Since taking violent control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have subjected women and girls to systematic discrimination that deprives them of their right to live safe, free and fulfilling lives.

These draconian measures restrict almost every aspect of their lives - stopping girls as young as 12 from going to secondary school, preventing women from working, limiting women’s and girls’ ability to leave their homes, and even dictating who they marry - with harrowing reports of being forcibly married to the Taliban. 

In recent months, Amnesty has spoken to various women and girls across Afghanistan, from Kabul to the most remote areas of the country. They are being sentenced, as one Afghan woman put it, “to death in slow motion” - forced to live without any dignity in the shadows, and denied their most basic and fundamental human rights. 

Many women who have bravely taken to the streets in waves of protests across the country, have since been threatened, arrested, detained, tortured, and forcibly disappeared.

The Australian Government, together with the international community, must send a strong message to the Taliban that their policies for women and girls will never be accepted. 

Sign the petition now calling on Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong, and Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy to increase their pressure by imposing consequences on the Taliban for their conduct; and provide humanitarian assistance in the region that ensures girls can access an education.