Meryl Streep: ‘A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan’

Meryl Streep addressed the UN General Assembly about how women’s rights have deteriorated under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

"A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not, and a woman may not in public. This is extraordinary."

Since it returned to power in 2021, the Taliban has closed secondary schools for girls, banned women from attending university and working at NGOs, restricted their travel without a male chaperone, and banned them from public spaces such as parks and gyms. Last month, the hardline Islamist rulers brought in new vice and virtue laws, which include rules against women singing in public.