News Center — International reports highlighting the growing violations of the rights of underage girls in many countries around the world have escalated, reflecting a major challenge facing efforts to protect this group. This grim reality exposes girls to constant danger and directly affects their future.

The Transnational Democratic Women’s Platform issued a statement calling for accountability for those responsible for crimes committed against women worldwide, from Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq to the United States. The statement reads:

“In an era where the world proudly speaks of technological progress, transparency, and human rights, there remains a stark and terrifying truth: women are still unsafe anywhere in this world. Wherever their feet touch the world map, their bodies become a battlefield — sometimes under the guise of democracy, sometimes under the cover of religion, sometimes behind the language of law, and at times within the deadly silence of international institutions. The forms of violence may differ, but the logic is one: the elimination of women, the control over them, and the silencing of their voices.”

The statement noted that in post-revolutionary Iran, this logic has reached one of its clearest manifestations. Women have been arrested and forcibly disappeared, with no information about their whereabouts, their physical or psychological condition, or even whether they are still alive. Families suffer marginalization as they move between detention centers, security agencies, and hospitals, facing threats, intimidation, and systematic pressure that forces them not to ask questions, not to pursue the truth, and to accept silence.

The statement emphasized that leaked reports from hospitals revealed an even more horrific picture, as medical staff stated they had received orders not to identify the bodies of murdered women, leaving them unidentified, unregistered, and erased from collective memory. This is not merely killing; it is the erasure of the crime itself — violence that continues even after death, depriving families of their right to know the truth and to mourn.

The platform stated that these acts are classified under international law as enforced disappearance, a crime that, when committed on a widespread and systematic basis against a specific group, constitutes a crime against humanity. It stressed that what is happening in Iran is not an exceptional case or a local phenomenon, but part of a global pattern of systematic violations against women and citizens.

The statement further explained that on the other side of the world, cases such as “Epstein Island” revealed networks in which children — particularly young girls — are turned into commodities, not on the margins of society but within the orbit of power, wealth, and politics. Jeffrey Epstein was not an individual anomaly, but a symbol of a system that demonstrated that even at the heart of regimes claiming freedom, when power and capital are not held accountable, the bodies of girls become the most vulnerable targets.

According to the statement, Epstein’s islands are not limited to the seas, but extend to any place where truth is concealed, victims remain unidentified, and power escapes accountability. Iranian prisons, detention centers, and unmarked graves are an extension of this geography.

“Violence against women is not confined to detention centers; it is sometimes enshrined in legal texts. In Iraq, laws are being enacted that allow the marriage of girls as young as nine — the legalized rape of children. These laws are neither tradition nor culture; they are an official declaration of war against girls. When the law, instead of protecting, becomes a gateway to legitimizing sexual violence, the distinction between private and public, or between crime and right, disappears.”

The platform stated that in Afghanistan, a set of governing laws and decrees has deprived women of the most basic human rights — from education, work, and freedom of movement to social presence. Women have effectively been excluded from life itself, becoming invisible beings. This is not mere discrimination, but gender apartheid and the systematic exclusion of half of society from the right to live.

The statement confirmed that the same pattern is repeated in wars, natural disasters, and humanitarian crises. From Shengal to Sudan, from Myanmar to refugee camps, women and children are the first victims of abduction, human trafficking, and sexual enslavement. In every crisis, the female body becomes prey faster than anything else.

“None of these tragedies can be viewed in isolation from the hidden equations of global power, where political and economic interests are prioritized over human lives, where stability becomes a pretext for bargaining with repression, and where silence becomes an official policy. We ask: Who is responsible for the missing women? Who is responsible for the unidentified bodies? Who benefits from the legalization of child rape? And who supports the exclusion of women from public life? Silence is not neutrality; silence is complicity.”

The platform stressed that demanding justice for missing Iranian women, justice for nine-year-old Iraqi girls, and justice for forgotten Afghan women is one unified demand for women’s right to life, visibility, and humanity. This is not merely a women’s issue; it is a test of humanity’s conscience, an international responsibility, and a call to action.

The Transnational Democratic Women’s Platform concluded by stating that the silence of governments, international institutions, and political actors in the face of these crimes is not neutrality but collusion.

“We demand recognition that the enforced disappearance of women in Iran is a crime against humanity. We also call for the establishment of independent international fact-finding committees, the support of victims’ families, the guarantee of their right to know the truth, and the accountability of all governments and power networks involved in systematic violence against women.”