The Taliban's war on women intensifies

What you probably already know: Four years ago this August, the Taliban seized control of Kabul as United States forces withdrew, marking the collapse of the Afghan government. Since then, the de facto government has imposed increasingly oppressive edicts that strip women and girls of basic human rights. While understanding the full impact of Taliban rule on Afghan civilians is difficult due to media censorship and security concerns, a new UN Women report offers “the most comprehensive assessment of women’s empowerment and gender equality since the Taliban took power.” The report, which used data gathered door-to-door across Afghanistan in early 2024, shows the country’s gender gap is the second widest in the world (behind Yemen) — a status carrying startling implications for women’s education, safety, and life expectancy.

Why? Measured against the Women’s Empowerment Index, the average Afghan woman achieves just 17% of her full potential to exercise her rights and freedoms, while women worldwide reach nearly 61%. The Global Gender Parity Index score shows Afghanistan has a 76% disparity between women’s and men’s outcomes in health, education, financial inclusion, and decision-making. More than three in four women are not in school, employed, or undergoing training — the same is true for less than one in four men. Men are nearly three times more likely than women to own a bank account or use mobile money services. Women are barred from all formal levels of governance and face physical and sexual violence at rates nearly three times higher than the global average. Afghanistan also continues to observe practices such as honor killings, child marriage, and resolving disputes by trading women and girls.

What it means: Increasingly shutting women out of education, employment and political representation locks half of a nation’s population in a worsening cycle of poverty and dependence. Denying women a seat at the political table robs them of the ability to shape policies, silencing their voices and further pushing them into the shadows of society. Catastrophically wide gender gaps ultimately curtail national economic development. The situation for women and girls in Afghanistan — a country that was once considered progressive — will “continuously spiral downward until the women’s rights crisis is addressed,” the UN Women report notes. 

What happens next: Afghanistan authorities have introduced additional restrictions since the data used in this report was gathered. The Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which was announced last August and prohibits women from traveling without a male guardian, has made it dangerous for women like Bahara to escape the country in pursuit of education. This, combined with a December-issued ban on women attending medical school, “will have a major impact on the status of women and gender equality more broadly in the country,” UN Women says. The Taliban has also completely banned women from studying in the health care sector, halting the training of new nurses and midwives.

As Afghan women like Friba Rezayee have expressed, the international community must do more than issue statements condemning the Taliban’s erasure of women and girls. On July 7, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that did just that. But the following day, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for two of the regime’s leaders, who are accused of “ordering, inducing or soliciting” gender-based persecution.

Change is possible. In a UN Security Council briefing last month, UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous said the international community must continue to work to hold the Taliban accountable and avoid unintentionally normalizing their policies. Bahous also called for more investment in women-led, grassroots organizations and expanded access to digital educational resources. “Afghan women have not given up. Nor can we,” she says. “We must not look away. We must not grow used to their situation. The systematic oppression of 20 million people simply because they are women is utterly unacceptable.”