A group of exiled Afghan women has condemned the ongoing deportation of Afghan refugees from Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan, describing the practice as collusion with what they called Afghanistan’s “repressive and misogynistic regime.”
In a statement issued on Wednesday, 6 August, the women urged the United Nations to immediately halt the forced return of Afghan refugees from neighbouring states, warning of severe and irreversible consequences.
The statement, released by the women’s rights group Window of Hope and shared with Afghanistan International, described the expulsions as a direct threat to the lives of thousands of women, children and families who fled persecution, war and tyranny.
The group warned that sending women and girls back to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is effectively returning them to “hell” where they are denied education, employment, freedom of movement and the right to live with dignity.
The statement also highlighted a rise in gender-based violence, increased suicide rates among women and girls, growing poverty, homelessness and worsening humanitarian conditions as likely outcomes of continued deportations.
Window of Hope called on the United Nations, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), international human rights organisations and governments to urgently establish a UN-led monitoring and protection mechanism specifically for Afghan migrant women. The group said such a framework is essential to prevent further expulsions and to protect those most at risk.
The group concluded that the deportation of Afghan women under current conditions constitutes complicity in gender apartheid.
