Meryl Streep says cats have more rights than women in Afghanistan

A female cat has more freedom in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan today than a woman, Meryl Streep said at the United Nations on Monday, stating that the world has been upended.

"Today in Kabul a female cat has more freedom than a woman. A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face. She may chase a squirrel into the park. A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan today, because the public parks have been closed to women and girls by the Taliban," the Hollywood actor said.

She joined several prominent Afghan women activists at the event “The Inclusion of Women in the Future of Afghanistan” on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

"A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not and a woman may not in public. This is extraordinary. This is a suppression of the natural law. This is odd," she said, referring to the Taliban’s latest edict for Afghan women, banning their voices and presence from public spaces.

Women in Afghanistan, nearly half the population, have been banned by the Taliban from attending high school, colleges and universities. It further restricts women from working in a horrific repeat of its 90s rule on the country.

Afghan women are not allowed to step outside their homes and need to be accompanied by a male guardian, father or husband (mehram) or face punishment by the local Taliban leaders. They are also prohibited from entering public parks, gymnasiums and salons, most of which have been shut down since August 2021 after the Taliban took control of power in Afghanistan.

"The way that ... this society has been upended is a cautionary tale for the rest of the world," Streep said, as she called on the international community to intervene on behalf of women to “stop the slow suffocation of entire half of the population”.

“I feel that the Taliban, since they have issued over 100 edicts in Afghanistan, stripping women and girls of their education and employment, their freedom of expression and movement, they have effectively incarcerated half their population,” she said.

The multi-award winning actor also called on the Sunni community nations to intervene as the Taliban claim to be a Sunni Islamist movement.

Streep also pointed out women comprised most of Afghanistan’s civil servants in the 1970s, before the nation plunged into wars over the next five decades.

The Taliban have outright rejected the foreign criticism of its harsh edicts on Afghan women, calling it an internal matter of Afghanistan. However the group is denied recognition by the international community, which has asked the Taliban leaders to restore the basic human rights of women.

The Taliban say they respect rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

"Without educated women, without women in employment, including in leadership roles, and without recognising the rights and freedoms of one-half of its population, Afghanistan will never take its rightful place on the global stage," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.