"The way that this culture, this society has been upended - is a cautionary tale for the rest of the world."
Hollywood actor Meryl Streep speaking at the launch of a documentary about four Afghan women at an event on the sidelines of the U-N General Assembly in New York.
The documentary and event aiming to encourage the inclusion of women in the future of Afghanistan.
The Taliban seized power in August 2021 when U-S led forces withdrew after 20 years of war.
The United Nations has sought a unified global approach to dealing with the Taliban as they place increasing restrictions on women and girls.
Most girls have been barred from high school; and women face an indefinite ban on university education.
The Taliban has also closed beauty salons and limited travel for women without a male guardian.
Meryl Streep again.
"Today in Kabul, a female cat has more freedoms than a woman. A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face. She may chase a squirrel into the park. A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan today, because the public parks have been closed to women and girls. A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not and a woman may not in public. This is extraordinary."
The Taliban say they respect rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law.
The group formally codified a long set of rules governing morality last month - based on a decree by the Taliban's supreme leader in 2022. The measures will be enforced by the morality ministry.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the event that without gender equality, Afghanistan will never find a place in the global community.
"Without educated women, without women in employment, including in leadership roles, and without recognising the rights and freedoms of one-half of its population, Afghanistan will never take its rightful place on the global stage."
The Permanent Missions of Ireland, Indonesia, Switzerland and Qatar, in partnership with the Women's Forum on Afghanistan, hosted the high-level event.
Meryl Streep says the international community needs to do more to support the women of Afghanistan.
"I feel that the Taliban, since they've issued over 100 edicts in Afghanistan, stripping women and girls of their education and employment, their freedom of expression and movement. They have effectively incarcerated half their population. And the international community, I believe, because the Taliban call themselves, I believe, Sunni. Yes? The Sunni community has a special responsibility to, in some way, intervene on behalf of their women and girls. I feel that the international community as a whole, if they came together, could effect change in Afghanistan; and stop the slow suffocation of an entire... half the population who are incarcerated."
Also attending the United Nations' General Assembly is Nobel Peace Prize laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban in her home country of Pakistan in 2012 for opposing restrictions on female education.
Ms Yousafzai says what is happening to women and girls in Afghanistan must stop.
"We were not expecting that we would be in a situation where we would be witnessing girls being banned from their education, which is the reality of girls in Afghanistan right now. And I have been working together with Afghan activists who want us to ensure that the international system recognises the brutalities that the Taliban had imposing on women and girls. And they're calling it a gender apartheid. So I want to talk about how we can ensure that this ban on girls education and what women are facing is treated as a crime against humanity. So I hope that we can send a message of hope and solidarity with Afghan, to Afghan women."
