PRESS STATEMENT
For Immediate Release
3 March 2025
Date: Thursday 6 March 2025
Time: 14:00 (for a 14:30 start) – 17:00
Venue: Committee Room 4A, Houses of Parliament, London
[London] – In the lead-up to International Women’s Day, a powerful gathering of activists, legal experts, judges, and artists at the House of Lords will call for gender apartheid to be recognised as a crime against humanity.
The event will be chaired by leading human rights barrister Helena Kennedy KC and will feature a panel of prominent voices: Actress Ariane Hejazi, former senior judge of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan and head of the Violence Against Women Court Fawzia Amini, former Afghan civil judge Ferozan Easar Qasimi, One Law for All Spokesperson Maryam Namazie and Co-Founder of Project Resist Pragna Patel.
Fawzia Amini says: ‘Gender apartheid denies women basic freedoms, treating equality as a privilege rather than a right.’
The sold-out event will highlight the urgent need for global action against regimes in Afghanistan and Iran that systematically oppress and erase women from public life.
Pragna Patel says: ‘The gains that have been made for women’s freedom and equality are being wiped out everywhere. But in countries such as Afghanistan and Iran, women are not just facing the most egregious discrimination: they are being literally erased out of existence by the use of gender apartheid as an instrument of oppression.’
Despite the grave human rights violations committed under gender apartheid, the international response has been weak—a stark contrast to the strong global action that helped end racial apartheid in South Africa.
Maryam Namazie says: ‘Sex apartheid like racial apartheid is dehumanising, degrading and humiliating. It’s violent and akin to modern day witch hunts and lynchings. It has been excused and even legitimised for far too long because of cultural relativism and the historical and ongoing disregard for crimes against women.’
This event is a call to action for policymakers, human rights defenders, and the global community to recognise gender apartheid as a crime against humanity and demand justice for millions of women.
Ariane Hejazi says: ‘Holding perpetrators accountable is not only a legal obligation but a moral imperative.’
Ferozan Easar Qasimi says: ‘This event honours Afghan judges who faced exile and Iranian activists who risk everything for freedom while fighting for justice.’
Helena Kennedy KC underscores the urgency: ‘Women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran are disappearing from public life. They are denied education, work, and even the right to move freely. This is a grievous situation—one that meets the very definition of apartheid. We must recognise gender apartheid as a crime and push the international community to act decisively.’
Internationally acclaimed films—The Red Suitcase (Short 2022), Rise (Short 2023), and Bread and Roses (Trailer 2024) will be featured —as well as a Daf performance by percussionist Sara Fotros and music by Kurdish/Alevi singer Suna Alan.
Sponsored by the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, One Law for All, and Project Resist.
For media inquiries and further information, please contact: genderapartheidevent@gmail.com