Women’s Protest Campaign: My Photo is My Identity; Removing Me is Removing Humanity.
A number of protesting women and girls in Afghanistan say the Taliban have removed women’s photos from electronic ID cards;
A move they believe is part of a policy of systematically removing women from social and legal spheres.
The protesters have warned that such a decision will have serious consequences for women’s identity and status.
The Afghan Women’s Justice Movement, in a statement, called the move “discriminatory and targeted” and said that removing women’s photos from ID cards is actually an attempt to erase gender identity and eliminate their presence in public spaces.
By launching the “Mirror of Afghan Women” campaign, the movement has raised slogans such as “My photo is my identity,” “Eliminating me is eliminating humanity,” “Every woman is a mirror, her image cannot be erased,” and “Stop gender apartheid in Afghanistan.”
These reactions have intensified after the Taliban’s Dar al-Ifta issued a ruling declaring that including women’s photos on ID cards is “optional.”
According to this decision, only women living outside Afghanistan will be required to have a photo on their ID cards; an issue that has been widely opposed and protested by women activists.
