Here is a story about a 15-year-old boy called Rifat living in the city of Aleppo in Syria in 2016. Since 2011, Syria has been in a civil war, and the residents of Aleppo, like all Syrians, were living with the effects of the war.

During one of my classes at the University of Stirling, we were asked what our decision would be if we had the power to grant asylum to a woman seeking asylum in our country on the grounds of consistent domestic violence from her husband. Being a woman and coming from a background where multiple women have died as a result of domestic violence, either directly or indirectly, I naturally want to offer her respite, but I also know that the answer depends on the substantive laws of both my country and her home country.

Do you know what reproductive rights are, who they apply to, and what they involve?

Often, the reproductive rights narrative is minimized to:

● Women’s Rights 
● Abortion 
● STDs 

Not only is this limited narrative incorrect—and, in some cases, harmful— it also does not fully reflect the impact, success, and importance of reproductive health care for all people in fully claiming, and enjoying their human rights.

Imagine yourself pushed out from the place you have called home all your life—with only a bag containing everything you have managed to save, not knowing the next place you will lay your head, having to move to another state, country, or continent to begin to piece your life back together again. This is a reality for people all around the world, in circumstances much worse than we can ever imagine.

Today, three months after the United States Government overturned Roe V Wade (which simultaneously overturned 50 years of legal protection for the right to an abortion in America), the global conversation surrounding reproductive rights remains both important and divisive. 

Americans now join a staggering 1,070 million people worldwide who face national institutionalised barriers to their reproductive rights. 

Five months on since the Taliban took over power in Afghanistan, on August 30th, 2021, women still continue to fear for their lives and basic human rights. 

This article will focus on an overview of the Taliban’s actions during their takeover in Afghanistan. I will also highlight some of the brave women who continue to challenge the Taliban’s restrictions of their basic human rights. 

In most humanitarian crises, the women and children always seem to suffer the most harm. 

“Peace is not just silencing the guns.”

 ~ Fawzia Koofi, former Republic Peak Negotiator and first woman Deputy Speaker of Parliament in Afghanistan
 

Throughout time in the Middle East, women have been considered second class citizens and have had to fight for their basic human rights.