Watch Maryam's Story

There’s a woman in black garb, tens of thousands of miles away from me, who isn’t allowed to speak once she steps from her door. She isn’t allowed to step from her door without a man beside her, small or big. And when she returns to her door, and steps inside, she cannot be heard singing to her child, let alone reading a story. 

There are 14 million more of her in this country across the sea, a place called the Land of the Afghans, where all the ones fated to be born female have been smothered and silenced.

In a new law passed August of 2024, the militant fundamentalist regime known as the Taliban have now muzzled Afghani women, in addition to covering them, face and body, in unbearably thick cloth. The woman is a vice, they contend. And, for whatever reason, she is no longer allowed to be heard speaking outside her home, or singing or reading from within her home. 

Since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, the female has been banned from schools, beauty salons, gyms, public parks, or anywhere human feet tread, but now, she simply must not be. The woman in Afghanistan is expected to not exist, while somehow raising her children. Minus song or story, voice or face. If she fails to comply, chances are she will be stoned. It's what people are calling gender apartheid.

It is the silence of the international community and the attempts to normalize relations with the Taliban that are encouraging such demonic laws. No one is standing up for these women. Who will face Goliath?

It's the small stones of our signatures that will get the attention of those who can change things. Our hope is to get 5,000 signatures (or more) petitioning the United Nations to step up and be a voice for these unsung and unseen mothers of Afghanistan.

If we don't act now there's no telling what else these unstopped men might do.

 Will you see the unseen, friend?

 Will you hear the unheard?

 And will you sign?