Can’t sleep. The head is going insane blowing up with ideas so I thought since I can’t sleep I might as well write them down. The print idea came from reading the press briefing at the United Nations by UN Women Special Representative in Afghanistan, Susan Ferguson on the situation of Afghan women, which the world seems to have forgotten about:
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/press-briefing/2026/08/press-briefing-at-the-united-nations-by-un-women-special-representative-in-afghanistan-susan-ferguson
“Five years ago tomorrow, the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan for the second time. What has unfolded since then has no parallel in the modern world. Year by year, the de facto authorities have systematically dismantled the rights of women and girls, issuing more than 100 decrees that have stripped away their rights and institutionalized discrimination against them.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world where women and girls face such far-reaching restrictions on their education, work, movement, public participation, and legal equality. In the past year alone, new decrees and edicts have further restricted women’s and girls’ access to justice and formally removed equality between men and women before the law.
For example, under Decree Number 12, a husband is only criminally liable for violence within marriage if he causes severe and visible physical injuries – and his wife must prove it in court, with her male guardian, who may be the very person who harmed her.
Under Decree Number 18, men retain the right to divorce, but a woman either needs her husband’s permission or to go through lengthy legal processes. The decree also implicitly permits child marriage, further eroding the rights and protection of women and girls.
Enforcement of these decrees and edicts has intensified, with thousands of officials now patrolling the streets with broad powers of detention and surveillance. The gates of high schools remain locked to girls. The halls of universities remain open to men only. And a growing shortage of women health workers – a consequence of the education bans – is making it harder for women to receive health care, particularly in communities where custom prevents women from being treated by male doctors.
We are seeing just how profoundly these restrictions are reshaping women’s everyday lives. More than half of the 3,200 women we surveyed say they now leave their homes only once or twice a month. Nearly three-quarters say they feel unsafe leaving home without a male guardian, or mahram. And more than half say they avoid public spaces, such as markets and health facilities, altogether. Women described a constant need to be aware of their dress, speech, and movements to avoid sanctions, scrutiny, or judgment.
This systematic loss of rights, freedoms, and opportunities has triggered a mental health crisis among women and girls. Seven in ten women we surveyed describe their mental health as ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’. These figures tell us what five years of systematic and growing exclusion looks like in the life of an Afghan woman.”
So I am so past the anger phase, I am aware that just staying angry won’t change anything, my main thoughts are: how can I halp? What can I do? Is just sending money the best way or is there anything else?
- Make money to donate by selling products that are somehow related to their situation, lace pieces created by women who, in comparison to Afghan women, are more equal to men and feel empowered with what they’re doing. Combine the work of polish lace makes and other female craft artists, with a vision to empower women of Afghanistan, or at least to make them seen somehow.
Prints, T-shirts with slogans, lace earrings bought by empowered London women, who work, make money, have supportive husbands, making them understand and see “there’s nothing normal” about this
“Because to do anything less is to walk away from Afghan women and girls would be another step towards normalization.
There is nothing normal about excluding half a country’s population from public life.
There was nothing normal about it five years ago.
There is nothing normal about it today.
And we must never allow it to become normal.”
