"Gender Apartheid must end"

Dear guests, human rights and women’s rights defenders,

Thank you for coming together at the Nobel Peace Center to discuss ending gender apartheid. On March 8, 1979, thousands of women marched the streets of Tehran for 3 days, protesting the imposed forced hijab law. They chanted, for women’s rights, seeding a movement that In 2022, became a historic uprising.

Sparked by the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini, rooted in decades of oppression. Our sisters in Afghanistan also endure unspeakable suffering under the Taliban’s gender apartheid regime. They are banned from education, employment, and public life. punished simply for being a woman.

Beyond our region, women and girls across the globe face gender-based violence, femicide, sexual abuse, harassment, and systemic discrimination daily.

So I ask you today , Isn’t it time we call gender apartheid a crime against humanity?

In 2025, in Iran a woman still needs a man’s permission to obtain a passport.

Violating the mandatory hijab law can lead to 74 lashes, imprisonment, or even having one’s car impounded. Husbands can legally block their wives from working. Singing and dancing by women in public is banned. Girls are forced to wear the hijab as young as six years old. Execution sentences are still looming over married women accused of adultery while getting a divorce is often impossible for women under the Islamic Republic laws. Abortion is criminalized unless pre approved. Access to Birth control pills have been limited and there have been cases that doctors werepressured to report pregnancies.

Under the “Youthful Population and Protection of the Family” Law free access to condoms, birth control pills, and IUDs has been cut off — putting women’s health at risk.

These policies not only violate human rights but they are also pushing women toward dangerous underground alternatives.

This is systematic oppression.

This is gender apartheid and it must end.

The current legal framework fails to name the severity of this crime — leaving women in countries like Iran and Afghanistan with no protection. For generations, women have endured violence, domination, and silence.

We cannot claim to stand for human rights while women’s rights are at risk.

Thank you.