Anti-Gender Diplomacy and Gender Apartheid

Abstract

This panel examines the case of Afghanistan by situating it within broader global anti-gender politics wherein diplomacy has become a contested arena for negotiating norms, accountability, and legitimacy. Afghanistan’s transnational networks of women’s rights defenders have led a global campaign for the recognition of the Taliban’s regime as a system of ‘gender apartheid’, highlighting the systematic exclusion of women from public life and decision-making. The panel considers how global actors – including states, non-state entities, and multilateral organisations – are addressing the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Varying approaches to diplomacy in this context are evident, ranging from engagement and conditional engagement to non-engagement. The panel explores how diplomacy operates vis-à-vis Afghanistan where women’s fundamental rights have been systematically dismantled. Papers investigate how diverse actors are shaped by shifting geopolitical interests and competing moral claims to engage, contain, or accommodate the Taliban regime through evolving diplomatic frameworks. They analyse the tension between realpolitik and normative commitments to gender equality and women’s human rights via CEDAW and the UN Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. By analysing the variation in the diplomatic stances of state and non-state actors, the papers will assess their intended and unintended consequences for Afghan women’s rights, representation and security. Through empirical and theoretical insights, the panel highlights how Afghanistan’s gender crisis reveals the fragility of international gender norms and the risks of selective diplomacy in any context, but especially in the face of anti-gender and anti-feminist pushback by extremist regimes.

Title	Details
Gender Apartheid and the Politics of Accountability: Multilevel Power Games in Global Responses to Women’s Rights in Afghanistan	View Paper Details
Mapping Gender Apartheid Diplomacy	View Paper Details
Defining Gender in Gender Apartheid	View Paper Details
Diplomatic Engagements with the Taliban: The Case of Norway	View Paper Details