In a chilling escalation of their attempt to fully eliminate the presence of women and girls from society, the Taliban has banned women from showing their faces or speaking in public. These decrees, the latest in a series of repressive measures, have drawn widespread condemnation from activists and human rights organizations worldwide.

Amid the growing outcry, 21-year-old Afghan athlete Marzieh Hamidi, a Taekwondo champion who grew up as a refugee in Iran and now lives in France, has launched the hashtag #LetUsExist, calling on the global community to stand against the Taliban’s gender apartheid.

“I’m launching this hashtag #LetUsExist to protest against the gender apartheid in Afghanistan, and I’m inviting all of you to support Afghan women and fight for gender equality,” Hamidi wrote on X, formerly Twitter. So far, the Tweet has amassed over half a million views and tens of thousands of reshares.

The #LetAfghanGirlsLearn hashtag arose as a global protest against the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade. Yet, the shift from #LetAfghanGirlsLearn to #LetUsExist is stark —what started as a battle for girls’ education has now become a struggle for women to simply exist.

The Taliban’s new rules are part of a broader strategy to erase women and girls from public life in Afghanistan. Under these decrees, women’s voices are deemed too “intimate” to be heard in public spaces, and they must cover their entire bodies at all times in public, including their faces, to avoid “temptation.” The global response has been swift, with many condemning the Taliban’s actions as a form of gender apartheid.

Shabnam Nasimi, Former Policy Advisor to the Minister for Afghan Resettlement and Minister for Refugees, wrote in an Instagram post on Monday: “My heart grieves for my homeland, Afghanistan, a nation now under the grip of those who once spread terror across the world, “the Taliban.” In this land, women and girls are stripped of their basic rights—the right to education, to work, to walk freely, or show their faces. Courage is not merely the act of speaking up; it is the willingness to make sacrifices for a greater good... it is barbaric to let women be erased from society in the 21st century.” 

Amid these escalating human rights violations, there has been a growing push to codify gender apartheid as an international crime. Lawyers and advocates argue that the systemic oppression of women, as seen in Afghanistan, should be recognized and punished under international law. This movement seeks to hold regimes like the Taliban accountable for their blatant violations of women’s rights. Yet, while the world debates and discusses these legal frameworks, Afghan women and girls are living the reality of these repressive policies, facing a struggle not just for their rights but for their very survival.