The recently-released third edition of the Gender Equality and Governance Index (GEGI) found, not surprisingly, that the two countries with the lowest scores in the index are Afghanistan and Iran. Both countries have institutionalized gender inequality through laws and policies of the state. The Taliban’s brutal repression of women and girls is being closely monitored by the international community. For those countries that share immediate borders with Afghanistan and Iran, namely Pakistan, what might the impact be of such regressive laws concerning women and girls? Pakistani and Turkish women’s rights activists along with those from other countries, such as Tunisia have for years raised concerns over the implications for women elsewhere of severely regressive gender equality policies in Afghanistan. These concerns are valid even in high income countries such as Qatar, where women endure multiple forms of discrimination embedded in the country’s laws as highlighted by Qatar’s extremely low rank in the Gender Equality and Governance Index 2024/25 report, where it has a rank of 154 out of the 158 countries listed, and as documented fully by the World Bank in its Women, Business and the Law database. 

Violations of CEDAW

The 2024 Taliban Law to silence women from speaking in public came on the heels of the adoption by the Iranian parliament of the Chastity and Hijab bill in September 2023, a year after the Mahsa Amini “women, life, freedom” protests. Women are banned from singing in public in Iran. Iran’s crackdown on women through the strengthened Hijab law has coincided with an alarming increase in the number of women arrested and imprisoned, particularly young women and those of ethnic and religious minorities. The broader institutional discrimination against women and girls in Iran, enforced through laws and policies of the state that fuel gender inequality, along with the targeting of religious minorities, presents an intersectional challenge. Iran has not ratified or signed the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) which came into force in 1981. 

Afghanistan is being taken to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its actions contravening CEDAW, which it ratified in 2003 as a state party. Australia, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands have announced their intention to take Afghanistan to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over gender discrimination in its violations of CEDAW. This is the first and key step before officially filing proceedings with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.

Payam Akhavan, human rights chair at Massey College and former UN prosecutor who is part of the coalition stated that “the legal initiative could be a means of exerting pressure on the Taliban.” He said it is also a way of bringing together Afghan women in exile and giving them hope. 

Pakistan’s progress on gender justice

In contrast, Pakistan, which shares a triangular border with both countries, has taken the opposite approach by strengthening the institutional and legal frameworks for women’s rights and protection, thus standing out in the region for its work on gender justice. Pakistan also elected a female prime minister in the 1990s, has a significant number of women in parliament and an active women’s parliamentary caucus. Pakistan ratified CEDAW in 1996, the year the Taliban first took power in Afghanistan. 

While progress is evident, the impact of years of militancy and violent extremism has taken its toll on gender equality indicators, as the World Economic Forum Index shows. Poor rural women remain the most vulnerable in the country. Recent research shows that gender issues are deeply entwined with extremism and militancy. According to the work of experts such as Professor Jacqui True from Monash University published by UN Women and UNDP, there is a correlation between the rise of gender-based violence and increased incidents of political violence or terrorism. It is clear that a relationship exists, although the causality is not fully understood. Evidence shows that the areas of the country most affected by conflict are also the ones where gender-based violence (GBV) is the highest and gender equality indicators the lowest, as in Balochistan which borders both Afghanistan and Iran.

Despite the influence of religious political extremism in Pakistan, the gender equality movement, in collaboration with civil society, has made significant headway in strengthening institutional, policy, and legal protections for women and girls.

From the first days of Pakistan’s Women’s Action Forum which in the early 1980s raised the alarm bells on the Islamic laws that were inherently discriminating against women, until now, their voices have been indicators of a dangerous path to follow. Despite the influence of religious political extremism in Pakistan, the gender equality movement in collaboration with civil society did make significant headway. The role of civil society women’s organizations and groups is critical. The support of a strengthened civil society advocating for gender equality in Pakistan is one of the historic lessons of the success in the country on improved institutional, policy and legal structures for the protection of the rights of women and girls. 

Civil Society advocates for gender equality and women’s protection laws

How women’s organizations can and do work to resist violent extremism is discussed in my book from McGill Queen’s University Press entitled “The Twelfth of February: Canadian Aid for Gender Equality during the Rise of Violent Extremism in Pakistan”. The book makes the connection between gender inequality and security threats in a volatile region affected by evident regression in gender equality.

The international community is being called upon by women’s rights groups and activists everywhere to take stronger action to codify gender apartheid through international legal instruments to make it possible to take legal action against the Taliban regime’s systematic oppression of women in Afghanistan. It is worth noting that Iran recently paused the implementation of the controversial “hijab and chastity law” which was due to be enforced in December 2024. According to the BBC, the decision by the Iranian National Security Council not to move forward with its enforcement, suggests the government fears it could trigger another wave of mass protests. Worrisome trends in other countries are an indication of regression in gender equality or, at best, stagnation at extremely low levels, as is evident from a close examination of the data in countries such as Kuwait, Sudan, Yemen, Oman, Syria, and Qatar mentioned earlier.

As the next session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women approaches in March 2025, assessing countries’ progress on implementing the Beijing + 30 agenda, the Gender Equality and Governance Index will be an important tool.