November 25, 2025
International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women
Rise up against the religious fascism of the Taliban and their imperialist supporters!
Statement by Left Radical of Afghanistan
November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, is not merely a symbolic day; it is a call for international solidarity of all toilers against a system that uses the oppression of women as a tool for profit accumulation and for creating divisions within the ranks of the workers. This day is a reminder of the class struggle that rages at the core of capitalist and patriarchal society.
Violence against women is not a purely cultural phenomenon limited to a specific geography or nation. It is a structural and systematic violence rooted in the economic inequalities of the capitalist system. Working women and oppressed women need class consciousness and solidarity at the national and international levels to liberate themselves from class inequality and save themselves from various forms of oppression.
While the essence of the struggle of working-class and toiling men and women is grounded in the class struggle, every opportunity must be used to advance the specific struggle against gender inequalities within the capitalist system. The fight to end sexual harassment in the workplace, secure paid maternity leave, establish childcare facilities, and achieve wage equality are essential fronts in the larger battle for the abolition of private ownership of the means of production and the overthrow of the class system. The democratic struggle, while fostering consciousness and increasing the allies of the workers, actively serves the socialist struggle and accelerates the process of revolutionary victory.
Today, we are witnessing one of the most blatant and brutal faces of gender apartheid in Afghanistan. The Taliban, who came to power through a deal with the United States in 2021, have been depriving women and girls of the right to education, work, and social participation for over four years. They fear literate and self-sufficient women because they know that aware and self-reliant women will never accept the yoke of patriarchal slavery and class exploitation.
While the Taliban systematically violate the rights of women, human rights, and the civil rights of the people of Afghanistan, countries that claim to defend human and women’s rights, instead of supporting Afghan women, are conceding to the Taliban and establishing political and trade relations with them. This behavior reveals the true nature of imperialism and the hypocritical policies of so-called democratic countries: women’s rights only matter to them when they serve as a tool for diplomatic pressure or to justify military interventions. When economic and geopolitical interests are at stake, the lives and freedom of millions of Afghan women are sacrificed to expediency.
While imperialist and powerful countries are pushing the world towards destruction in their quest to capture markets, plunder resources, and consolidate their hegemony, the issue of Afghan women has been forgotten. They are trying to normalize the terror imposed on half of Afghanistan’s population—women—by the Taliban. It is clear that the misogynistic Taliban group is the product of backdoor agreements among global powers, and their continued presence is now enabled by the complicit silence of the “international community.”
This injustice is not limited to high politics; it is etched onto the bodies of Afghan women every day. Just in this month of November, a pregnant woman in Herat province was denied entry to a hospital for not wearing a burqa. As a result, she fell into a coma from labor pains outside the hospital, and her baby died. This is a murder—a murder committed not by an individual, but by a misogynistic system. This is just one example of the hundreds of tragedies that occur daily in every city and village of Afghanistan. This tragedy shows the true face of a regime that enjoys the political and financial support of the US and other major powers.
With four years of Taliban reign of terror having passed, the protesting and aware women of Afghanistan have learned from experience that they should not wait for any miracle. They must rely on their own independent strength and, in solidarity with women in the region and the world, decisively advance the struggle against both the religious and misogynistic fascism of the Taliban and their imperialist supporters. The women of Afghanistan will never surrender to force and repression.