Former Afghan MP: Taliban is a `gender apartheid’ regime

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A former member of Afghanistan’s parliament is urging the world to label the Taliban a “gender apartheid” regime because of its crackdown on human right. Naheed Farid said the apartheid label was a catalyst for change in South Africa and can be a catalyst for change in Afghanistan. Farid, a women’s rights activist who was the youngest-ever politician elected to parliament in 2010, told a U.N. news conference Monday that as a result of severe restrictions on women’s rights “I’m hearing more and more stories from Afghan women choosing to take their life out of hopelessness and despair.”