The Crime of Being a Woman: The Suffocating Silence of Afghanistan and the Hypocrisy of the World

 I want you to pause, clear your mind, and truly imagine every single bit of the situation I am about to describe. It is vital that you feel this, because only then can you understand the brutal truth of what comes next.

You are walking down the street with another woman. Neither of you can see clearly what’s ahead. Not because you forgot your glasses, but because you are forced to cover every single inch of your body—including your face—with a thick piece of cloth. Your friend is shaking, sweating, crying out of sheer panic and physical pain. She wants to scream, or just cry , to let it all out. But she can’t. And you? You cannot even hold her hand or comfort her. Not because of social awkwardness, but because the very act of two women walking outside without a male guardian for their daily routine is heavily restricted and monitored. One wrong move, one glance up instead of keeping your head down, is enough to get you dragged into a dark police car. Not because you did something wrong, but simply because you were born a woman, and the rulers of your land want you stripped of any power, even the power to breathe. If you dare to show your face or speak out, you face public humiliation, whips, and arbitrary detention or shot dead.

Now, imagine you are a parent. You have a beautiful little girl. She is full of dreams and wild curiosity. She doesn’t know the world outside; even the alley right outside your door is a mystery to her. She wants to explore, to learn, to read, and to write. What do you tell her when she begs you to send her to school? Unfortunately, you have to say no. There is no other option. And when she asks why she never sees the face of any woman other than her mother, why everyone is hidden behind layers of fabric, do you tell her the truth? Do you tell her about the barbaric rules that dictate if she defies them, she could face horrific violence or disappear into a dark prison cell , or even shot dead ?

Or imagine you have a son. Instead of sending him to a school where he can safely pursue his dreams of becoming a doctor, an engineer, or an artist—where he can learn kindness, love, and respect for his sister—you have no choice but to watch the education system collapse. You are forced to see them systematically reform the schools, replacing science and modern education with centers of extremism where young minds are poisoned with hatred, cruelty, and the glorification of weapons.

    I know this sounds impossible. I know that just imagining it squeezes your heart with unbearable pain. But this is not a dystopian movie. This is today’s reality in Afghanistan. This is how women, mothers, and children are surviving right now. They have been stripped of their voices. Today, the only sound you ever hear from a woman in Afghanistan is the faint, final sigh when they are silenced behind closed doors or by cold bullets. That is the only sound allowed.

As an Iranian, this pain hits too close to home. I have shouted, screamed, and cried for my own people for years, and yet, the world turned a blind eye. Nobody cared. Nobody listened. But I refuse to stop. I am writing this today for the people of Afghanistan because, unfortunately, we shared the fate of being born in the Middle East. This is our everyday struggle. In this part of the world, you are born voiceless, and if you dare to speak up, they will shut you down. And if you are a woman? They will do things to you that are too unbearable to name before they finally silence you forever.

Why does the world look at us as if we don’t exist? Why does the West treat our suffering as if this is just "the normal Middle Eastern way of living" and that nothing is wrong?

The Slaves of the Newsfeed
The ugly truth is that the people of this world are nothing but slaves to the media and trending hashtags. Humanity has lost its moral compass; people do not genuinely care about human suffering unless it is packaged nicely for them by mainstream media networks, or until a tragedy lands on their own doorstep.

Look at how the world talks about Gaza. The global outrage is deafening. Yet, if you ask ninety percent of the people protesting on the streets, they don’t have a single clue about the actual history of Gaza or Palestine. They don’t care about the historical context; they just follow the herd, consuming whatever tragedy the media algorithm decides to feed them this month.

Meanwhile, when it comes to the rest of the Middle East, specifically the systematic erasure of women in Afghanistan and the brutal oppression in Iran, the world falls into a sickening, hypocritical silence.

Where was this global outrage just seven months ago during the horrific surge of executions and massacre in Iran? When innocent people were being slaughtered in the streets, when youth were being hung from cranes just for demanding basic freedom? The world looked away. The media moved on to a more "profitable" headline.

Let this be known: the blood of every single innocent soul lost in Iran and Afghanistan is on the hands of the international community. It is on the hands of the politicians, the media outlets, and everyday citizens of the world, especially those who chose the comfort of silence. Your silence is not neutrality; it is complicity in our genocide.