Introduction
From a feminist perspective, international law has frequently failed to adequately address gender issues, primarily due to the challenges posed by a male-centric discourse reflected in its organizational and normative structure. This limitation is particularly evident in refugee law, where gender-based persecution has long struggled to gain recognition as a ground on its own for asylum. The 1951 Refugee Convention, developed in the context of post-war Europe with a limited understanding of the concept of persecution (see here and here), defines a refugee as someone fleeing their country because of a well-founded fear of persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, with gender being notably absent. This historical framework continues to hinder protections for women from Afghanistan under current refugee law, who face severe deprivation of fundamental rights and systematic discrimination. This system of oppression recently gained legal attention as ‘gender apartheid’ to distinguish the severity of the situation of women’s rights in this context (see this and this).
