Afghanistan

Since August 2021, hundreds of  Taliban edicts and directives have been issued that institutionalize a system of exclusion of Afghan women from almost every aspect of society, including education, employment, travel, recreation, public life, and political spaces. This includes the prohibition of education for girls over the age of 12, banning women from public and private universities, preventing men from teaching girls, and forcing female students to cover their faces in the classroom. 

These rights abuses have a devastating impact. Preventing girls from studying eliminates the pipeline of women equipped to serve in the few jobs still open to them, most notably in Afghanistan’s severely under-resourced healthcare system. Women seeking healthcare without a male guardian are refused treatment, while hundreds of healthcare facilities have reduced services or shut down entirely as a result of cuts to foreign assistance, further exacerbating women’s limited access to medical care. Maternal and child deaths are increasing, many of which are preventable. The Taliban’s ban on girls’ education has also spurred a surge in child marriage and an increase in early childbearing—risk factors for increased domestic violence, health complications, and poverty. Women who speak out against repression, experience sexual violence, or flee domestic violence face arrest, corporal punishment, transnational repression, and even execution. Since August 2021, reporting intimate partner violence or other forms of domestic violence has become ‘nearly impossible’ and potentially life-threatening, while women are now virtually unable to secure divorces even in cases of abuse. Afghan women and girls, however, continue to resist Taliban repression in many ways, including through secret and online schools, sports, social media advocacy, and coalition building. 

Women and girls across the diaspora—including female lawyers, judges, US military collaborators, and NGO workers now hunted by the Taliban—have   been forced to return to Afghanistan as countries including the U.S., Pakistan, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates have ended immigration pathways. Russia became the first country to normalize relations with the Taliban on July 3, 2025, raising concerns about increased legitimation of their regime. Yet, efforts to protect women and girls and to recognize and condemn discrimination and abuse by the Taliban persist. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) was unanimously renewed until June 17, 2027, and a number of UNSC representatives have highlighted the severity of gender-based repression, as Afghan women continue to lead a campaign for the recognition of gender apartheid as a violation of international law. 

Taliban security forces violently dispersed a group protesting the recent arrests of women who allegedly violated the Taliban’s strict dress codes and mobility restrictions. Despite drawing international outrage, the Taliban has vowed to continue enforcing gendered-restrictions, reflecting the broader system of the Taliban’s war on women that severely limits their visibility, mobility, and civic participation in Afghanistan.

The Taliban issued a decree governing conditions for the separation of spouses. UN experts warn that it will increase vulnerabilities for women and girls, including by validating child marriage, limiting women’s custodial and parental rights, and making it even more difficult for women to leave abusive relationships. Women’s access to justice remains severely constrained following the dismantling of institutions such as the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, bans on women working in the legal sector, and the removal of women judges.

Cross-border tensions between Taliban forces and Pakistan have re-escalated after a period of relative calm, with renewed Pakistani strikes hitting border provinces in Afghanistan. Women and children reportedly comprise the majority of casualties in repeated strikes on civilian areas. The renewed violence risks further disrupting humanitarian operations and reducing access to health services. Women and girls face heightened barriers to fleeing violence and accessing aid due to mahram requirements, checkpoint scrutiny, and shortages of female humanitarian staff, with women-headed households especially at risk.

Food insecurity and malnutrition are worsening across Afghanistan, with roughly 17 million people facing acute hunger and almost five million women and children affected by near-record malnutrition. Conflict, disaster-related disruptions, international sanctions, and border closures are constraining supply chains, increasing prices, and limiting access to food—evidenced by prolonged isolation in areas like Nuristan, where over 136,000 people faced severe shortages after weeks of blocked access routes. Women and children are bearing the brunt of the crisis: pregnant and breastfeeding women face heightened health risks, mothers are reportedly skipping meals to feed their children, and some families are traveling hours to reach clinics only to be turned away due to shortages of nutrition supplies.

As Afghanistan approaches five years under Taliban rule, forced returns from Iran and Pakistan are accelerating amid narrowing resettlement pathways and growing international pressure to repatriate Afghans. Since the onset of the current crisis, approximately 352,500 people have returned from Iran and Pakistan, bringing total returns in 2026 to more than 619,100 as of May 9; between May 3–9, returns averaged 8,300 per day. For women, girls, former civil society actors, journalists, and others associated with foreign governments or rights-based work, forced or coerced return heightens risks of surveillance, economic precarity, and exclusion from services. It also exposes them to Taliban restrictions that severely limit women’s public life and access to education, employment, and protection.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) was unanimously renewed until June 17, 2027, following the limited extension issued on March 16, 2026. The renewal coincides with a recent crackdown on women’s rights in the country. A number of UNSC representatives highlighted the severity of gender-based repression, which is considered by many advocates to constitute gender apartheid. Surveyed Afghan women have previously reported that they consider UNAMA one of their last remaining hopes to access aid and service provision.