Meryl Streep shows solidarity at UN with Afghan women, girls

The Manila Times

Meryl Streep shows solidarity at UN with Afghan women, girls  A female cat has more freedom in Afghanistan than a woman does, Hollywood actress Meryl Streep said at the United Nations on Monday, September 23, in a bid to get world leaders to focus on the plight of Afghan women and girls.  "The way that ... this society has been upended is a cautionary tale for the rest of the world," Streep told an event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to encourage the inclusion of women in the future of Afghanistan.  The Taliban seized power in August 2021 when US-led forces withdrew after 20 years of war. The UN has sought a unified global approach to dealing with the Taliban, who have cracked down on women's rights.  Most girls have been barred from high school and women from universities by the Taliban. The group has closed beauty salons and curtailed travel for women without a male guardian.  REUTERS VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe    Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes #tmtnews #merylstreep #afghanistan

Transcript

00:00The way that this culture and the society has been upended is a cautionary tale for the rest of the world.

00:10In the 70s, most of the civil servants

00:14were women, over half the teachers, doctors,

00:18there were women jurists, lawyers,

00:21in every profession, and then the world upended.

00:26And today, in Kabul, a female cat has more freedoms than a woman.

00:33A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face.

00:40She may chase a squirrel into the park.

00:44A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan today because the public parks have been closed to women and girls

00:52by the Taliban.

00:55A bird may sing in Kabul,

00:59but a girl may not, and a woman may not in public.

01:03This is extraordinary. This is a suppression of the natural law.

01:09This is odd.

01:15I feel that the Taliban, since they've issued over a hundred edicts in Afghanistan,

01:21stripping women and girls of their education and employment, their freedom of expression and movement,

01:27they have effectively incarcerated half their population.

01:32And the international community, I believe,

01:36because the Taliban call themselves, I believe, Sunni, yes, the Sunni

01:42community has a special responsibility to, in some way,

01:48intervene on behalf

01:51of their women and girls.

01:56I feel that the international community as a whole, if they came together,

02:03could affect change in Afghanistan and

02:07stop the slow suffocation of an entire, half the population, who are incarcerated.

02:20You

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