March 8: A Day for Women Around the World, But Not for Afghan Girls

March 8, International Women’s Day, is celebrated worldwide with gatherings, festivities, and a focus on equal rights. But in Afghanistan, this day has become more of a reminder of suffering, oppression, and the suffocating restrictions that have taken away the breath of Afghan women. While many women in other countries strive for progress and equality, Afghan women are deprived of their most basic rights the right to education, the right to work, the right to be present in society.

However, the deprivation of Afghan women and girls is not limited to the closure of schools and universities; rather, they are also denied economic independence, freedom of expression, and even the basic rights they should have as a wife, a daughter, or a mother. They are even deprived of the right to choose their own way of life.

Even more disheartening than these conditions is the silence of the world. The voices of protest, though present, are so weak and scattered that they are drowned out by the storm of injustice. It seems as if the suffering of Afghan girls and women has turned into a repetitive spectacle, one that the world merely watches without taking serious steps toward change.

Yet behind this dark curtain, Afghan women continue to stand. Girls who, in silence, within their homes, resist by reading a book, writing a sentence, learning a skill. They know that every word they write, every piece of knowledge they gain, every hope they keep alive, creates a crack in the towering wall of discrimination and oppression.

On March 8, when the world speaks of women’s progress and empowerment, we must not forget that in one corner of this planet, there are girls still fighting for their most fundamental rights. Let us not see this day as just a symbolic celebration, but as an opportunity to hear the voices of Afghan women, to stand in solidarity, to take action. Because if the world continues to merely watch, history will remember it as a partner in this injustice.