Abstract
<jats:p>The article is dedicated to the linguacultural analysis of the “gender apartheid” phenomenon in English-language media discourse, using The Guardian articles regarding the status of women in Afghanistan as its primary material. The study aims to determine the semantics and axiological potential of this designation. The article substantiates the precedent nature of the lexeme “apartheid”, which functions as an evaluative descriptor within the studied phrase. In addition, hypero-hyponymic relations between the lexemes “segregation”, “apartheid”, and “discrimination” are identified. An investigation of contextual realizations reveals three interconnected aspects of the term’s functioning: as a social phenomenon, a political regime, and a crime. Within each aspect, the lexical units objectifying these meanings and their corresponding semantic components are identified. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that, for the first time, “gender apartheid” is examined as a hyperbolized metaphorical descriptor that combines nominative and evaluative functions. As a result, it is proven that the semantics of “gender apartheid” accumulate historical connotations of apartheid, project them onto modern gender relations, and form an expressive image of a discriminatory situation, performing the functions of information compression and the expression of a stable negative evaluation.</jats:p>