Ben Madilynn
Actress Meryl Streep said that “in Kabul a female cat has more freedom than a woman” while speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York City on September 23, where activists called for Afghan women’s rights to be upheld.
The event, hosted on the eve of the annual General Assembly debate, aimed to raise awareness of Afghan women’s rights while presenting a film called The Sharp Edge of Peace on four Afghan women leaders’ participation in the Doha talks before the Taliban takeover.
“Today in Kabul a female cat has more freedom than a woman. A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face, she may chase a squirrel in the park,” Streep said.
“A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan today because the public parks have been closed to women and girls by the Taliban. A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not in public. This is extraordinary. This is a suppression of the natural law,” the actress continued.
“The way that this culture, this society has been upended is a cautionary tale for the rest of the world,” warned Streep after noting that Afghan women gained the right to vote in 1919, before the US or France, and then lost it. Credit: UN Web TV via Storyful
Video transcript
Or to Merry Street to introduce it.
Mary Street.
Oh, well, hello.
Can you hear me?
I hope you can hear me.
Thank you, Foreign Minister of Indonesia.
Thank you.
Um Excellencies, esteemed leaders and friends from all around the world.
And I want to give heartfelt greetings, especially to our sisters in Afghanistan.
Oh, and all of those who have had to leave their country.
We are all gathered here today to express our solidarity with you and to encourage the world community, especially those who continue to do business with Afghanistan to intervene on your behalf.
In 1971 I graduated from college here in New York.
And that year women in Switzerland were granted the right to vote.
Women in Afghanistan, of course, had enjoyed that right already for half a century women in Afghanistan received the vote in 1919.
But for 30 years before the women in France, no, 20 my mouth is bad.
Uh Well before women in the United States received the right to vote.
The way that this culture, this society has been upended is a cautionary tale for the rest of the world.
In the seventies, most of the civil servants were women, over half the teachers, doctors, there were women jurists, lawyers in every profession and then the world upended.
And today in Kabul, a female cat has more freedoms than a woman.
A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face.
She may chase a squirrel into the park.
A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan today because the public parks have been closed to women and girls by the Taliban.
A bird may sing in Kabul but a girl may not and a woman may not in public.
This is extraordinary.
This is a suppression of the natural law.
This is odd.
I feel that the Taliban since they have issued over 100 edicts in Afghanistan stripping women and girls of their education and employment, their freedom of expression and movement.
They have effectively incarcerated half half their population and the international community.
I I believe because the Taliban call themselves.
I believe Sunni.
Yes, the Sunni community has a special responsibility to in some way, intervene on behalf of their women and girls.
I I I feel that the international community as a whole if they came together could affect change in Afghanistan and stop the slow suffocation of an entire half the population who are incarcerated.
We’re about to watch a very short version of a documentary film called The Sharp Edge of Peace.
It’s directed by Royal Sadat and it is produced by Leslie Thomas.
And it gives us a glimpse of the incredible courage and the tireless commitment of four Afghan women leaders, the only women who sat face to face with the Taliban during peace talks in 2020.
It’s one of my, the greatest honors of my life to have the privilege to be here with these extraordinary women.
They encourage us and they remind us that a distorted fundamentalist fear of the future can upend a civilization from the, from the inside.
And now I hope you enjoy a sharp edge of peace.
