U.S. Congress: Situation for Women and Girls in Afghanistan Has Significantly Worsened

In a statement, the Commission said that the severe and "inhumane" restrictions by the Taliban have drastically reduced women's ability to participate in public life and the group's control over the private lives of Afghan women and girls has increased significantly.

The U.S. Congress Human Rights Commission announced that it will soon hold a session regarding the situation of women in Afghanistan.

The Commission has stated that Heather Barr, the Women's Rights Division Associate Director at Human Rights Watch, Mitra Mehran, a women's rights activist, and Wahida Amiri, one of Afghanistan's protesting women, have been invited to the session.

It is worth mentioning that in nearly the past three years, the Taliban have imposed stringent restrictions on Afghan women and girls, including banning girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade, preventing women and girls from studying at universities and educational centers, barring women from working in national and international non-governmental organizations and even United Nations offices, and prohibiting women from attending gyms, restaurants, public baths, and traveling without a male guardian.

United Nations experts have described these restrictions as a form of gender apartheid in Afghanistan.