Multi-awarded American actress Meryl Streep believes that a female cat enjoys more freedom than an Afghan woman living in their country.

Speaking at the United Nations on Monday (September 23), Streep, who first received notice as a fine actress in the film Deerhunter, made this comparison as she called the attention of world leaders towards the condition of Afghan women and girls.

Heavily restricted and treated as inferior to their male counterparts, Afghan women are allegedly barred from speaking and letting their voices heard in public.

Many girls are even kept away from attending high school. Neither are female Afghans allowed to travel alone nor visit beauty salons which were padlocked.

Their faces or body are not to be seen by other people.

“The way that … this society has been upended is a cautionary tale for the rest of the world,” Streep told reporters at the UN General Assembly.

In August 2021, the Taliban government returned to power after the withdrawal of the US-led forces after 20 years of war.

Since then, they have been strictly implementing Islamic laws that have been slowly stripping Afghan women and girls' of their rights.

On Monday, September 23, the Hollywood actress spoke out at the U.N general assembly as an effort to call on world leaders to focus on the severe oppression women in Afghanistan are facing. She stated that the way the society has been upended is a cautionary tale for the rest of the world.

Women in the country have been banned from the public parks, universities, and many other places. They are banned from singing and reciting poetry in public and from going out without a male guardian.

The Taliban have stated that these measures are in line with their interpretation of the Islamic law. The set of rules that they formally codified last month were based on the Taliban's supreme spiritual leader in 2022. This will be enforced by the Ministry of Morality.

Streep compared a squirrel's right to a woman— “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,” she said.

“A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not and a woman may not in public. This is extraordinary,” she added.

These laws were labeled as “gender apartheid” by the UN, which has spoken out about the situation.

“Without educated women, without women in employment, including in leadership roles, and without recognizing the rights and freedoms of one-half of its population, Afghanistan will never take its rightful place on the global stage,” as stated by U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

A former leader of the Women’s Forum of Afghanistan, Asila Wardak stated at the assembly that the fight is not only for women in Afghanistan, but a global fight against extremism.

Streep also stated in the assembly that if the world united, then we could stop the 'slow suffocation of an entire half of population', urging the international community to unite.