# @middleeastmatters on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DZwziJpIyMh
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/66899191-middleeastmatters-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/b0a18d4ab3.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-06-19T09:50:15.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Middle East Matters (MEM) (@middleeastmatters) — https://gondola.cc/middleeastmatters

## Caption

“The Taliban have effectively incarcerated half their population”

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in 2024, actress Meryl Streep condemned the Taliban’s escalating restrictions on women, saying that women and girls in Afghanistan now have fewer rights than even animals.

“The way that this culture, this society has been upended, is a cautionary tale for the rest of the world,” said Streep.

She called on the international community to come together to stop what she described as the “slow suffocation” of half the population.

👉 In recent weeks, dozens of women have reportedly been arbitrarily detained for allegedly wearing “improper hijab.” The arrests triggered protests in Herat on June 9, which Taliban forces violently suppressed, using gunfire and force against demonstrators.

Since seizing power in 2021, the Taliban has issued more than 100 decrees aimed at erasing women and girls from public life, banning them from secondary and higher education, barring them from most forms of employment, and severely restricting their freedom of movement and other basic rights.

Women are required to cover their entire bodies and faces, and under the Taliban’s so-called morality laws, their voices are not to be heard in public.

Afghan activists and lawyers are leading a movement to #EndGenderApartheid in Afghanistan: endgenderapartheid.today

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