Russia's Normalization of Gender Apartheid
On 3 July 2025, Russia became the first country to formally recognise the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Source
This is not JUST a regional power move. It is a geopolitical rupture with far-fetching consequences for the global consensus on human rights-based non-recognition. Why? Because:
Russia, a veto-wielding UN Security Council member, has become the first to formally recognise the Taliban undermining efforts to isolate them for dismantling womenâs rights.
But recognition is not just a diplomatic act. It's a moral reckoning, especially when a regime has institutionalised gender apartheid!
According to UN Women, UNAMA, and IOM, who consulted 592 Afghan women across 22 provinces:
- 46% said the Taliban should not be recognised under any circumstances
- 50% said recognition must be contingent on restoring womenâs rights
- Only 4% supported unconditional recognition Yet a veto-wielding Security Council member has now recognised a regime where:
- Women are banned from public life, education, and employment
- Mental health distress has reached crisis levels, with 69% of women reporting worsened anxiety, isolation, and depression
- Enforcement of decrees is violent, punitive, and gendered
- Economic collapse is pushing women into child marriage, displacement, and survival sex
This is not just a rollback of rights. Itâs codified exclusion. It is gender persecution as defined under international law. It is gender apartheid.
With 17+ countries already hosting Taliban diplomatic missions and others (like China, Uzbekistan) signalling that formal recognition is âinevitable,â the dam is cracking. Russia not only accepted a Taliban ambassador, it also removed the Taliban from its terrorist list (April 2025).
The question now is JUST not if more countries will follow but what happens to the global accountability framework when one of the most powerful actors in the UN system signals that gender apartheid is not a diplomatic dealbreaker. What happens when a UNSC permanent member endorses a regime that governs half its population into silence? What happens to UN-led accountability frameworks, to Security Council Resolutions 1325, 2678, and 2679, or to the credibility of a system that promises âno recognition without rightsâ? Recognition without rights is not neutrality. It's complicity. The space to negotiate gender justice through international legal and diplomatic pressure is shrinking... fast!