A Note from the Guest Editor — My name is Zarqa Yaftali and I am the executive director of the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation (WCLRF), a human rights defender and women’s rights activist. I am also a Malala Fund Education Champion. I started as a field researcher and rose within WCLRF leading research on girls’ and women’s rights in Afghanistan. My work with WCLRF has contributed to national legislation — including the criminalisation of sexual harassment against women and children in Afghanistan — thus earning a peace prize from the United Nations. 

People around the world remember the apartheid regime in South Africa when Black South Africans were deprived of their rights because of their skin colour and subjected to oppression and violence. Now, the world should know that in Afghanistan, my home country, women are deprived of their rights and subjected to systemic oppression, violence and deprivation because of their gender.

When we talk about the hundreds of thousands of women who have lost their jobs and more than three million girls denied their education, these are not just numbers — they are people with stories and dreams. The world must know that this is a human rights disaster. 

Our work at WCLRF includes offering psychosocial and emotional well-being support to adolescent girls deprived of education and other civil and human rights in various provinces in Afghanistan and supporting women-led and women-focused organisations in the country. 

I am currently advocating with the international community on the systemic discrimination against women and the violation of women’s rights. I help enhance support for Afghan women in their struggle against gender apartheid and increase global alliance and collaboration in the fight for justice and equality. 

My advocacy focuses on exposing the Taliban’s regime system of oppression for what it is: gender apartheid. 

Despite global leaders ignoring and avoiding Afghanistan, the efforts of Afghan women and their allies over the past two years have not gone unnoticed and have sparked many discussions about the violation of women's rights by the Taliban. I hope this collection of stories highlights the bravery, resilience, and ability of Afghan women and girls to continue thriving in the face of injustice. 

They are curated in the hope of ensuring justice, freedom, and the end of gender apartheid in my country, Afghanistan.