As we mark World Refugee Day (June 20), millions of Afghan citizens — especially women — continue to live in exile, facing displacement, discrimination, and complete deprivation of rights. More than four decades of war, structural violence, foreign occupation, failed governance, and ultimately the return of the Taliban have made Afghanistan one of the world’s largest sources of refugees.
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 14), the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees, and its 1967 Protocol, every person fleeing their country due to fear of persecution, political or gender-based threats, or threats to life, has the right to seek asylum and receive protection.
International human rights law and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) also affirm that no woman should be returned to a country where she faces violence, persecution, or the denial of her rights.
Yet the bitter reality is:
Thousands of Afghan women in neighboring countries like Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey face the threat of arrest, deportation, statelessness, forced labor, sexual violence, and discrimination in accessing health care and education.
Women human rights defenders, journalists, judges, lawyers, professors, and teachers, who fled Afghanistan due to their gender or professional backgrounds, are left in limbo in host countries, with no clear path to resettlement or safety.
The silence of the international community — especially bodies like UNHCR and the nations involved in Afghanistan’s collapse — amounts to a grave injustice toward women whose only “crime” was demanding their right to education, work, and a life of dignity.
The Afghan Women’s Movement in Exile warns that the ongoing neglect of this crisis not only constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights and international obligations, but also poses a direct threat to the lives and mental well-being of thousands of Afghan refugee women.
Therefore, we:
Urge the United Nations, human rights institutions, and host countries to immediately halt deportations of Afghan women and families, and to grant them legal residency and protection;
Call for an expedited and transparent resettlement process, particularly for vulnerable Afghan women.
