Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
Véra Jourova, Vice-President of the European Commission
Helena Dalli, Commissioner for Equality European Commission
David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament
25 August 2021
With regard to the terrible situation occurring in Afghanistan, eighteen thousand women of BPW Europe express their strong support for all Afghan women, mothers, girls and children. The Taliban people demonstrated, in all these years, a total disregard for women and their rights, preventing them from expressing their potential at work, in families and even in schools.
BPW International is one of the most influential international networks of business and professional women with Affiliate Federations and Clubs in about one hundred and seven countries around the world. BPW Europe is the biggest region of BPW International with 18000 members.
For ninety years, BPW has carried out and realized a special mission: to develop the entrepreneurial, professional and leadership potential of women at all levels through advocacy, education, mentoring, networking, skills development, programs and economic empowerment projects around the world, helping, in this growth, all women, regardless of ethnicity and religion.
For these values, which have always been professed and defended, it cannot even tolerate the hypothesis of violence against Afghan women, for the mere fact of being women.
We therefore strongly ask the European Commission to open humanitarian corridors for support of Afghanistan women and children, humanitarian aid and to organize hospitality centers for women who need safe environment. It breaks our hearts to witness the rollback of women’s rights in the country after years of hard work by Afghan women to access their fundamental rights to education, economic independence and self-determination in the past decades. These rights are declared in the EU’s core value of equality between women and men which the EU should seek to protect in all its actions and policies.
We also ask to use every effort so that the European Union and the United Nations Security Council can guarantee the rights of Afghan women and girls at risk, with consequential behavior towards the Taliban people.
Your Excellency, we invite you to urgently request the Taliban representatives to respect the EU fundamental rights and, as a first value, equality between women and men.
Anu Viks
BPW Europe Regional Coordinator
BPW International Executive member
anu.viks@bpw-europe.org
www.bpw-europe.org
Please find the response from Mr. Tomas Niklasson on behalf of Commissioner Helena Dalli below.
BPW Europe Response External Action DG Justice
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womenlobby.org
22 April 2025
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We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience,
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To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level.
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Disability profiles supported in our website
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ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
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Notes, comments, and feedback
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to
