South Africa Declares ‘Gender Apartheid’—Now It Must Act

At South Africa’s National Women’s Day commemoration on August 9, President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke about the Taliban’s systematic oppression of women and girls in Afghanistan. Standing beside him, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai urged governments to officially recognize this system as what Afghan women have long called it: gender apartheid. “South Africans know what it means when the law is used to determine where people may go, what they may learn, what work they may do and what place they may occupy in society,” Ramaphosa said. That comparison carries special weight in South Africa. Because of its own history with apartheid, the nation speaks with unique authority against systems of domination elsewhere. Ramaphosa acknowledged this duty, saying South Africa must “stand in solidarity with victims of sexism and gender apartheid, wherever they are.” Human Rights Watch has documented how the Taliban have stripped women and girls of their rights. This includes banning girls from education beyond sixth grade and severely restricting women’s employment, movement, and participation in public life. These abuses amount to the crime against humanity of gender persecution. The International Criminal Court has already issued two arrest warrants for senior Taliban leaders on those charges. United Nations experts and Afghan women’s rights defenders have described the situation as gender apartheid. Afghan women are leading the push to have gender apartheid recognized in international law. They want it included in a new treaty on crimes against humanity, alongside the existing crime of apartheid based on race. Human Rights Watch and other civil society groups support this effort. So far, seven state delegations back the inclusion. Governments are now preparing to negotiate that treaty. South Africa should use these talks to strongly support adding gender apartheid as a crime against humanity—and urge others to do the same. Doing so would honor National Women’s Day and the memory of the 20,000 South African women who marched against apartheid pass laws in 1956, understanding that laws controlling movement and daily life are tools of domination.