RASC News Agency: Richard Bennett, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Lars Bo Moller, Denmark’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan, and Vibe Klarup, Secretary General of Amnesty International Denmark, have joined the global “Red Lipstick Campaign” to express their solidarity with the oppressed women of Afghanistan and denounce the Taliban’s escalating war on women’s rights. The campaign, launched by women’s rights activists across the world, serves as a bold symbol of resistance against the Taliban’s gender apartheid, under which millions of Afghanistani women have been silenced, erased from public life, and systematically imprisoned in their own homes. Wearing red lipstick something now effectively banned under the Taliban’s draconian moral edicts has emerged as a powerful act of defiance, symbolizing identity, courage, and the indomitable spirit of Afghanistani women.
According to activists, the “Red Lipstick Campaign” is more than an aesthetic gesture it is a rallying cry. “This is not about beauty. It is about voice, visibility, and human dignity,” said one organizer. “The red lipstick is a mark of protest a symbol of every woman who has been banned from working, learning, speaking, or simply walking freely in her own city under the Taliban regime.” The campaign also sheds light on the plight of Afghanistani women beyond the country’s borders. In neighboring countries like Iran and Pakistan, thousands of female asylum seekers continue to endure horrific conditions, including arbitrary detention, gender-based violence, and constant threats of deportation. Activists point out that these women, forced to flee Taliban persecution, now face new forms of insecurity and marginalization in exile.
The participating international officials and human rights defenders stressed that silence in the face of such oppression is complicity. “When women in Afghanistan are forbidden from speaking, studying, working, or even appearing in public spaces, the rest of us must raise our voices louder,” said Bennett in a statement. The campaign has called on global citizens, civil society groups, and human rights organizations to join the movement and amplify the voices of Afghanistani women, whose freedoms have been brutally stripped away under one of the most repressive regimes in modern history.
As one activist declared: “We wear the red lipstick they have banned. We speak because they are silenced. We resist because they are imprisoned. This is our tribute, and our promise not to forget.”
