Apartheid is a term used to describe the systemic oppression, segregation and marginalisation of a specific group of people based on race, ethnic or religious identity. The South African apartheid of black South Africans is well known, and there is major contention surrounding whether Israel's brutal and repressive actions against Palestinians should be categorised as apartheid. There is also an increasing push by women's rights activists for the ongoing repression of women by oppressive states to be described as a form of apartheid as well.

A couple of years ago, a campaign was launched by Afghan human rights activists calling for the repressive discrimination against women by the resurgent Taliban regime to be codified as a crime against humanity. Similarly, human rights activists have also begun arguing that the term gender apartheid also be applied to describe what is happening to women in Iran. Such women rights campaigners argue that the ideological and institutionalised nature of the systemic subjugation and deprivation of women in countries like........

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