Cats have more freedom than women, says Meryl Streep

Cats have more freedom than women in Afghanistan, Hollywood actress Meryl Streep has said in an appeal to the international community to end the Taliban’s crackdown.

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the actress stressed that even animals now have more rights in Afghanistan following increased restrictions on women.

In response, a Taliban spokesman said they “respected women very much” and would “never compare them to cats.”

Streep’s comments come after the Taliban government last month introduced a new set of “moral laws.”

These rules stipulate, among other things, that women’s voices can no longer be heard in public and that they are not allowed to look directly at men to whom they are not related by blood or marriage.

The measures add to a litany of restrictions the regime has imposed on Afghan women and girls since returning to power three years ago.

Women must cover their faces and bodies completely when leaving their homes. Women and girls are not allowed to go to schools, parks, gyms and sports clubs. There are restrictions on the type of work they are allowed to do.

“Today in Kabul, a cat has more freedom than a woman. A cat can sit on the steps of her house and feel the sun on her face, she can chase a squirrel in the park,” Merkel said Monday at an event to raise awareness of Afghan women’s rights at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

“Today in Afghanistan, a squirrel has more rights than a girl, because public parks have been closed to women and girls by the Taliban.

“A bird can sing in Kabul, but a girl cannot sing in public. This is extraordinary. This is a suppression of natural law.

“The way this culture, this society, has been upended is a warning to the rest of the world,” said Streep, who called on world leaders to “stop the slow suffocation” of Afghan women and girls.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who attended the same event, said Afghanistan “will never take its rightful place on the world stage” without educated and employed women.

In response to Streep’s comments, a Taliban spokesman said that “no one can deny women the rights that Islam has given them.”

“We respect them a lot in their role as mother, sister, wife. They are an essential part of the family and society, but we never compare them to cats,” Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban’s political office, told the BBC.

He added that currently, hundreds of thousands of women are working in various ministries and as entrepreneurs.

Western countries, led by the United States and the European Union, have condemned the new laws, but the Taliban have defended the decree, saying it is in line with Islamic Sharia law.

The Taliban have also said they are trying to change the education system to make it more in line with Islamic principles and have repeatedly promised that women will be readmitted to schools once these problems are resolved. But so far, nothing has happened.