A call was issued by the Initiative to Fight Against Occupation and Femicide for Peace and Security about the return of the Taliban to power.

The call said: “The Taliban declared sharia rule in Afghanistan after seizing most towns and cities including Kabul. There have been reports that the Taliban, who declared that they will respect women's rights only in the framework of the sharia regime, have already started to implement a series of decisions that ignore the basic rights of women and leave women no living space.

As the world public will remember, Afghanistan came under Taliban rule between 1996-2001. And in the wake of the declaration of sharia rule, women and girl children were banned from attending school, participation in politics and speaking in public. Women who broke those rules were either stoned, had their finger cut off or executed. With the removal of the Taliban from power and the resistance and struggle of Afghan women, girl children won the right to education, the burqa requirement was abolished, many gains such as the law on combating violence against women and the abolition of the work ban were achieved, and these gains continued until the Taliban seized power once again.”

The call continued: “It being obvious that women have faced a great massacre throughout history, especially in the Middle East, we are appalled to see some internationally active organizations that have offices in Afghanistan meet with and talk to Taliban representatives. In Afghanistan, accepting to deal with the Taliban administration brings along the danger of legitimizing current rights violations. Finally, the Taliban regime is another name for inequality, rights violations and death for women.

Contrary to the words recently uttered by President Erdogan of Turkey, as "The Initiative to Fight Against Occupation and Femicide For Peace and Security" and as women we have a lot conflicts and problems with Taliban's faith, and there is no way that we can reach any agreement with a misogynistic organization like the Taliban! Turkey's enthusiasm for working together with the Taliban in Afghanistan is worrisome and gives food for thought, given the facts that the whole world knows about the active support the AKP government provided to gangs such as ISIS; that the İstanbul Convention (Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence) was very recently terminated by a Presidential midnight Decree in Turkey!”

The Initiative to Fight Against Occupation and Femicide for Peace and Security called on all international organisations to:

“Take urgent action to disarm the Taliban as soon as possible; impose sanctions on all powers and states that helped, played a role in arming the Taliban; urgently take every measure against this fundamentalist regime, looking out for the right to life of all anti-Taliban groups, especially the women and children in Afghanistan”

The Initiative also called “upon all to oppose the recognition of the Taliban government and support the resistance and struggle of Afghan women against the reactionary male fascism.”