Show Notes
The word apartheid gets used in many different contexts to indicate the severity of crimes across the globe. But its use is controversial because the word has a very specific definition in international law. Even more controversial is the concept of expanding the term to include gender.
If there is one place on earth where it could be argued that a gender apartheid designation is needed its Afghanistan. Since the US withdrawal from the country, the Taliban have instituted a brutal repression of women. But is it gender apartheid?
What would it mean for us to create this designation and assign it to Afghanistan? Does cultural relativism throw a legitimate wrench into this argument or does that take the concept too far?
We discuss all these questions on this episode with Mohammad “Musa” Mahmodi, a Research Fellow in Law at the Schell Center for International Human Rights at Yale, Zahra Motamedi, an Associate Research Fellow at Yale, and Karima Bennoune, the Lewis M. Simes Professor of Law at the University of Michigan and author of “Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here”.
More from Entitled
For over six decades, the U.S. embargo on Cuba has stood as one of the longest and most comprehensive sanction regimes in modern history. But what are the real-world human, economic, and geopolitical costs of economic coercion?
Mexico is navigating one of the most sweeping judicial transformations in modern constitutional history—a controversial reform replacing thousands of career federal and state judges with bench positions decided by direct popular vote. But what does this mean for the rule of law, institutional independence, and the future of checks and balances in Latin America's second-largest economy?
While citizenship is often celebrated as a cornerstone of democracy and equality, constitutional scholar Dimitry Kochenov argues it functions as something far more troubling: a global caste system.
When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, they didn't just alter the country's political landscape—they systematically dismantled the legal and social reality for all women and girls. Through a continuous rollout of oppressive edicts, women and girls have been banned from universities, barred from working for NGOs, and forbidden from even speaking aloud in public spaces. International legal experts and activists are increasingly calling this reality gender apartheid.
The collapse of the Afghan government has raised grave concerns for the future of the country, particularly for women. Exit is not a generally available option, but should it be? This week, we wanted to re-release our conversation about the rights of women in Afghanistan as we prepare to release a special conversation with Rina Amiri who was the US Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights.