KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Amnesty International has announced a global campaign under the title “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence,” aimed at bringing the issue of gender apartheid in Afghanistan to the attention of international decision-makers and urging concrete action to protect the rights of Afghan women and girls.
According to a statement published on the website of Amnesty International Australia, the campaign will run from November 25 to December 10, 2026, coinciding with the annual international campaign against gender-based violence.
Amnesty International said that, amid recent global crises, Afghanistan has increasingly fallen out of the international media spotlight and political agenda, despite the continuing deterioration of women’s rights under Taliban rule.
“We’re working to change that by working with Afghan women leaders, human rights defenders, communities, our supporters and international partners to raise public awareness and ask for action from decision-makers. Stand with us to ensure no Afghan woman or girl is forgotten,” the organisation said.
The human rights organisation has called on members of the public to join the campaign to ensure that no Afghan woman or girl is forgotten. Participants can take part in online advocacy and local activities and are also encouraged to sign an open letter in support of Afghan women.
Amnesty International said that since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban have systematically stripped women and girls of their fundamental rights. The organisation cited bans on education and employment, restrictions on freedom of movement and the systematic exclusion of women and girls from public life.
“These are deliberate, institutionalised policies designed to exclude women and girls from every aspect of society – what Afghan women human rights defenders have long described as ‘gender apartheid’,” the organisation said.
The campaign seeks to draw renewed international attention to what Amnesty International considers a systematic system of gender-based oppression in Afghanistan and to pressure governments and international institutions to take meaningful measures against it.
The campaign also comes as international legal and diplomatic efforts to hold Taliban leaders accountable for their treatment of women and girls gain momentum.
On October 5, 2026, the International Criminal Court (ICC) unsealed arrest warrants against four senior Taliban officials: Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Acting Minister of Education Habibullah Agha and Acting Minister of Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadim.
The warrants relate to allegations of crimes against humanity of persecution on gender and political grounds. The court found reasonable grounds to believe that the four officials were responsible for ordering, inducing or soliciting these crimes.
Amnesty International Australia has also called on the Australian government to use its diplomatic influence to support the recognition of gender apartheid under international law and pursue accountability for crimes committed against Afghan women and girls. The organisation argues that existing international legal frameworks must address institutionalised discrimination and the systematic exclusion of women based on gender.
Meanwhile, the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate. September 2026 marked five years since the Taliban banned girls from attending secondary schools. Women remain excluded from universities and most forms of employment, while restrictions on movement, dress and participation in public life continue to limit their freedoms.
According to UNESCO, Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are formally prohibited from accessing education beyond the primary level. An estimated 2.4 million girls are currently deprived of secondary education.
A UNAMA human rights update covering July to September 2026 also documented more than 50 instances of Taliban morality police arresting, detaining or warning women over alleged violations of the authorities’ hijab requirements.
Despite repeated calls from Afghan women activists, human rights organisations and international institutions for the reversal of these restrictions, the Taliban authorities have continued to enforce policies that exclude women and girls from education, employment and public life.
