RASC News Agency: In a profound act of symbolic resistance against gender-based violence and institutional misogyny, the Embassy of Italy for Afghanistan operating from exile in Doha, Qatar has unveiled a bold red bench as a global emblem of solidarity with the women and girls of Afghanistan. This striking installation is not merely a piece of public art; it is a moral statement, a cultural protest, and a visual outcry against one of the most egregious human rights crises of our time. Positioned poignantly before a map of Afghanistan, the bench reflects Italy’s unambiguous condemnation of the Taliban regime’s draconian policies, which have relentlessly targeted women’s presence in public, professional, and educational spaces. According to the embassy, the initiative seeks to draw urgent international attention to the daily violations suffered by Afghanistani women who, under the Taliban’s rule, have been systematically stripped of their rights, silenced in civic life, and reduced to invisibility under the weight of authoritarian gender apartheid.
Launched under the directive of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this red bench is the first of many to be installed at Italian diplomatic missions across the globe. It marks the beginning of a global campaign to spotlight the violent misogyny and ideological extremism that define Taliban governance a regime that, since seizing power in 2021, has rapidly reversed decades of hard-won progress in women’s rights. The unveiling ceremony, held on Sunday, May 4 (14 Sawr), was attended by Italy’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Sabrina Ugolini, and Riccardo Guariglia, Secretary General of the Italian Foreign Ministry. The dignitaries stood beside the red bench as a solemn reminder of the international community’s ethical responsibility to resist the Taliban’s gender tyranny.
In an official communiqué, the embassy described the bench as “a piercing symbol of defiance in the global campaign against gender-based oppression.” The initiative, the statement noted, is directly endorsed by Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, who declared:
“We must sit on these benches and raise our voices in unrelenting solidarity with women who suffer violence, silencing, and systemic discrimination. By starting this movement in Afghanistan, we are sending an unmistakable message to the world: we will not look away.”
This act of symbolic diplomacy comes amid growing global dismay over the Taliban’s gender policies, which are widely regarded as among the most regressive in the world. Since the collapse of the previous government, Afghanistani women have been barred from secondary and higher education, dismissed en masse from government roles, banned from employment in national and international NGOs, and forbidden from traveling without a male guardian. Public parks, gyms, and even women-only bathhouses have been closed off to them. These decrees, imposed by the Taliban under the pretext of religious conformity, reflect not piety but patriarchal authoritarianism.
Worse still, the Taliban has dismantled institutional mechanisms that once protected women abolishing the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, dismantling legal protections against domestic violence, and detaining female activists with impunity. International appeals for gender inclusion have been dismissed as “foreign interference,” as the Taliban clings to a medieval vision of society that has no place for half its population. In this bleak landscape, the red bench emerges as an icon of remembrance and resolve. Situated in the heart of Italy’s diplomatic outpost in Doha, it silently calls on the world to reject complacency and confront the brutality Afghanistani women endure every day.
Italy’s decision to launch the global bench campaign from Afghanistan is a deliberate one intended to hold a mirror to the international community. It is a call to action, a rebuke to indifference, and a challenge to governments and institutions that continue to engage diplomatically with the Taliban despite its unapologetic war on women. If the red bench stands for anything, it is this: silence is complicity. And in the face of such brazen repression, the world must choose between symbolic gestures and substantive, collective resistance.
