Sometimes Human Rights Watch does know what a woman is.

Under the Taliban, Afghanistan is the only country where girls are banned from education beyond the sixth grade. The Taliban have also violated women’s right to freedom of movement, banned them from many forms of employment, dismantled protections for women and girls experiencing gender-based violence, created barriers to them accessing health care, and barred them from playing sports and even visiting parks. The United Nations special rapporteur on Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, has described the situation as “an institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity, and exclusion of women and girls.”

Actual women and girls, here – the kind the Taliban knows to bully and limit and confine.

Since January 2024, the Taliban have detained women and girls in Kabul and other provinces for what they call “bad hijab” – that is, for not abiding by the prescribed dress code. UN experts have reported that some of those detained have been held incommunicado for days and subjected to “physical violence, threats and intimidation.”

What is the prescribed dress code? A sack. A vast enveloping sack that makes women look like parcels or vertical furniture rather than people. What is the goal? To make women look like walking tents rather than human beings. Otherwise, you know, they’ll be rutting in the streets and no men will know who their children are.

Taliban restrictions on women and girls have impeded access to health care, jeopardizing their right to health. The Taliban’s education bans guarantee future shortages of female health workers, Human Rights Watch said. Donor countries need to find ways to mitigate the ongoing humanitarian crisis without reinforcing the Taliban’s repressive policies against women and girls.

Look at HRW knowing that women and girls need health care and education and that female health workers are needed. Look at them not pausing to tell us that trans female health workers will do just as well if not better. Look at them knowing which people are female when the chips are down.