Belquis Roshan’s speech at the press conference at the Chamber of Deputies

I greet the friends of CISDA, my companions in Italy, and the honorable members of the Italian Parliament, who have allowed today’s meeting to take place.

I represent the women of Afghanistan and I appreciate your commitment and sense of responsibility for wanting to make the cry of those who are subjected to the laws of the most medieval, misogynistic and evil government in history heard. I am immensely grateful to you for inviting me to today’s event. For almost four years, Afghan women have been under the sinister shadow of the Taliban; their freedom is repressed with the most barbaric practices.

Western governments, especially that of the United States, have betrayed the people and women of Afghanistan by allowing the Taliban to regain power four years ago. The Taliban are secretly receiving ever more financial and diplomatic support, and this guarantees the continuation of their degenerate regime. The strategic and economic interests of Western governments in Afghanistan clearly prevail over the fate of the people, especially women. Most of these governments, and even the United Nations, say they are concerned about the rights of women in Afghanistan, but they have no sympathy for our people and have made shameful deals with the Taliban terrorists.

In this situation, any voice raised by the free and progressive forces of the countries of the world, especially the West, in support of Afghan women is commendable and valuable. You have done your basic and human duty, thus becoming good friends of Afghan women.

What is happening to Afghan women is not only under the category of “gender apartheid”. Brutal crimes and barbarities are committed against women, women are not considered human beings, they are deprived of all rights and cannot carry out any social activities. Not only work and education are prohibited. Most girls are deprived of school and have to submit to male laws, and in many cases, girls are forced to live a terrible life.

The Taliban, like all fundamentalist and aggressive groups, want to erase women, half of the population, confining them to the home, so that it is easier for the other half of the population, the men, to repress them and reduce them to slavery. But most Afghan women have so far opposed the Taliban in various ways, women have not given up.

You have done a lot to recognize the gender apartheid against Afghan women and have created a valuable document. These efforts, although not having a direct and lasting impact on the situation of Afghan women, are an example of solidarity of the Western people, and show that, unlike their governments, there are people who have sincere sympathy and show solidarity towards Afghan women. In these four years, Afghan women have tried to make their voices heard in most of the countries where friends like you are present, we hope that in this fight you will be the first, we hope that your government will recognize gender apartheid.

We know that even if gender apartheid is recognized, this will not prevent Western governments from cooperating with the Taliban. In practice, we see that the warmongering rulers of the West have not respected the laws and universal treaties that they have signed, and have trampled on them whenever they needed to protect their interests. In many cases, we have seen that they have not respected and have torn up UN resolutions. Right now, to the dismay and anger of all those who see what is happening, the fascist Netanyahu, the butcher of a suffering people, despite an arrest warrant being issued against him by the International Criminal Court, has traveled peacefully to Europe, and no European government dares to raise its voice against this war criminal.

These are the games played by Western rulers with human rights. And there are many examples of these practices in the world. Serajaldin Haqqani, the leader of suicide bombers and murderer of the Afghan people, whom the United States had blacklisted, putting a bounty of millions of dollars for his capture, has been traveling freely in Arab countries for the past three years to make shameful deals with Western countries and the United States. He knew that his crimes would later be forgiven by his American ally.

But if your work bears fruit and the gender apartheid of the Taliban is recognized as such, it will be a valuable achievement for the global alliance in defense of Afghan women and will encourage Afghan women to continue their fight for rights against Taliban fundamentalism and terrorism. The success of this work would demonstrate that there is a deep distance between oppressive governments and the freedom-loving Western people.

I have to warn the true friends of the oppressed women of Afghanistan: the United States, the West and its institutions have tried in the last four years to introduce a number of women who pass themselves off as representatives of Afghan women and instead promote the interests of the imperialist states. Among them Fawzia Kofi, Habiba Sarabi, Sima Samar, Mahboubeh Seraj, Fatemeh Gilani, Shakriyeh Barakzai Shahrzad Akbar and others, who are manipulated by Western intelligence and try to divert the struggle of Afghan women from the path to freedom. During the Doha talks, where power was returned to the Taliban, these women were among the lobbyists who favored the return to power of these bloodthirsty criminals.

I have been with some of these women for many years in Afghanistan because I was a member of parliament, I know that these are the enemies of oppressed women and have made women’s rights a tool to achieve their own ambitious goals. But because they have become competent and capable, America and the West have benefited from them for over twenty years. I am sure that at major world conferences, at the United Nations and the European Parliament, and wherever they have interests, they will be awarded international prizes. None of them represent Afghan women; they only represent imperialism and Western governments, so they have no place in the struggle for women’s liberation. Some of the women I mentioned also speak of gender apartheid, but we must be aware that there is a difference between you and them. You, with the formalization of gender apartheid, should also denounce and take a clear stand against imperialism’s support for the fundamentalist Taliban and jihadists so that your campaign is distinct from theirs and shows your real will to defend Afghan women. You should be very determined.

Here I want to emphasize another important point, even if it goes beyond the Afghan disaster. When it comes to protecting their interests, the imperialist states of the world do not hesitate to ally themselves with fascists and fundamentalists who massacre people; I am talking about the horrible genocide of the Zionist regime of Israel in Gaza, I am talking about having brought al-Qaeda and ISIS to power in Syria, now led by Jolani, I am talking about the wars in Yemen, Iraq, Ukraine conducted thanks to the weapons and financial support of the world powers. It is an incredibly important historical and political necessity that decolonial movements declare that imperialism, fundamentalism and terrorism are two sides of the same coin and dangerous enemies of humanity; until there is a global and popular alliance against these grave dangers, the future of humanity and the planet will be at risk.

I invite you to create this alliance. Finally, I ask you, as representatives of the Italian people in parliament, to unite the Italian people and Afghan women in the fight against gender apartheid in Afghanistan. Do not forget the fight against the fundamentalists and do not let the Taliban government in Afghanistan be recognized by your governments.

Once again, I shake the hand of your honorable and humane support and I bow to each of you for your work and your solidarity with the oppressed women of Afghanistan. Long live the unity of the peoples of the world.

Belquis Roshan, former parliamentarian of Afghanistan is now a refugee in Europe