A year after the Taliban’s takeover, Afghanistan has become ‘a cage for Afghan women,’ activist and VOICE country lead Yalda Royan says in an interview with Business Insider. A year ago, Yalda Royan lost everything: “my country, my home, my job, my people,” she told Insider. In exile, Royan continues to fight for the country she left behind as the country team lead for the feminist organization VOICE Amplified. She is also a founding member of the Afghan Women’s Advocacy Group who, in June, spoke before the United Nations’ Security Council, blasting “the negligence of the international community” in the face of Afghanistan’s new, misogynistic leadership, where despite early promises, young women and girls are still barred from receiving an education.

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The global humanitarian community is failing Afghan women and girls, and it will continue to fail them until it starts backing up its empty statements with real action and working directly with Afghan women, girls and women-led organizations to implement solutions to the crisis they face. After Afghan women spent two decades thinking they were part of a partnership with the U.S. and international community, to then be betrayed and left behind, it’s past time for the global community to listen to Afghan women and girls and empower them to drive solutions to this crisis.

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One-Year Since Kabul Fell: VOICE Urges Humanitarian Community to Listen to Local, Women-Led Organizations to Address the Crisis Facing Afghan Women and Girls. To mark one year since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan was cemented with the fall of Kabul on August 15, 2021, Mendy Marsh, Co-Founder and Executive Director at VOICE, a feminist organization dedicated to eradicating violence against women and girls and holding the humanitarian community accountable to women and girls in crisis settings, released the following statement:

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