Talent Wasted: Afghanistan’s Educated Women Adapt Under Taliban Restrictions

Young women in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, are trying their hands at unfamiliar tasks in embroidery, tailoring and designing beads in market stalls. Many should instead have been sitting at desks writing computer software or reporting news, the fields they trained for.

What Daily Life Looks Like for Afghan Women Now

I am an educated Afghan woman and a former government employee. I have long been active in women’s rights struggles, education, and community development. For me, living in Afghanistan is fraught with dangers and difficulties. In a context where women are denied the right to study, work, or participate in public life, my previous roles in government institutions and international organizations, and my advocacy for women's rights, place me at particular risk.

Forcefully Deported Afghan Women Return to a Life of Fear and Anxiety

When Roya, a former police officer under Afghanistan’s Republic government, left the country with her family, she felt a great sense of relief, having escaped from the horrors of Taliban rule. She never imagined that less than three years later she would be forced back into the same conditions, only worse.

Arrested for a Greeting: The Price Afghan Women Pay for a Simple Word

The Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, is the name given by the Taliban to their religious police, tasked with enforcing strict Islamist rule on the people of Afghanistan. But for Afghan women, the name evokes only fear and terror, as they bear the harshest consequences of its actions.

Defending Democracy in a “Topsy-Turvy” World

It is a bleak global moment—with civil society actors battling assassinations, imprisonment, fabricated charges, and funding cuts to pro-democracy movements in a world gripped by inequality, climate chaos, and rising authoritarianism. Yet, the mood at Bangkok’s Thammasat University was anything but defeated.

Taliban’s New Internet Restrictions Keep Afghanistan Out of the Global Spotlight

At the end of September, the Taliban abruptly severed Wi-Fi and fiber-optic internet in Afghanistan for 48 hours without any explanation. The disruption caused consternation and suffering among millions of Afghans, especially those who depend on the internet for education and online commerce.

Afghanistan: Ban on Girls’ Education Linked to Rise in Forced and Child Marriage

After the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, they banned girls’ education beyond the sixth grade. Human rights groups say the policy is a major driver of the rise in underage and forced marriages involving Afghan girls.

Afghan Women Die Needlessly After Natural Disasters

In normal times, women in Afghanistan face dire living conditions relative to their counterparts in other parts of the world, given the iron grip of Taliban repression. However, the powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar, and Laghman at the end of August was out of the ordinary.

UN Mobilizes Amid Cascading Earthquakes in Eastern Afghanistan, Aiming to ‘Build Back Better’

United Nations aid organizations are rallying after a series of earthquakes and powerful aftershocks wreaked unprecedented havoc across eastern Afghanistan—particularly in the mountainous provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar.

Afghan Journalism Under Siege: Arrests, Censorship, and Collapse

Ahmad Siyar works in road construction in Balkh province. He wears a safety helmet to protect himself from debris constantly falling from the mountain where the road is being built. Once, he wore the same type of helmet for a very different reason. He was reporting from various parts of northern Afghanistan. Back then, his helmet bore the word “Journalist” in both Dari and English.

Small-Scale Enterprise Becomes a Beacon of Hope for Afghan Women

It was a sunny winter day in Kabul. I decided to step out and take a stroll around my surroundings. With my long dress and hijab on, I left the house. Since I was not too far from home, I did not need the company of a Mahram, a male guard, by my side – a strict restriction placed on Afghan women by the Taliban.

Afghan Women Defy Taliban Repression With Underground Protests

“Even if our murals don't change much, they will surely leave a mark - at least on the mind of one Taliban member who sees them.” These words from Afghan women activists reflect the bold and creative tactics they continue to use in their resistance against the Taliban's oppressive regime.

Malala: ‘Honest Conversations on Girls’ Education Start by Exposing the Worst Violations’

“She was at her brilliant best, speaking fearlessly and boldly about the treatment of women by the Afghan Taliban, robbing an entire generation of girls their future, and how they want to erase them from society,” said educationist and one of the speakers, Baela Raza Jamil, referring to the speech by Nobel Laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai.

Embedding Education into Climate Finance Will Deliver Desired Learning, Climate Action Outcomes

Education is under threat as multiple crises push children out of school and into harms way. COP29 Baku could break historical barriers that hold back education from playing a unique, critical role to accelerate the ambition of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement, protecting people and planet from life-threatening risks of climate change.

Afghan Girls Share Their Despair and Visions for the Future Under Taliban Rule

In line with the 2024 International Day of the Girl theme, ‘Girls’ vision for the future’, a dozen Afghan girls speak up to express their hardships and resilience. They also share their visions for the future.

Sustainable Peace in Afghanistan Needs Women on the Frontlines

Women in Afghanistan have continued to advocate for their rights and have called on the international community to not only stand in solidarity but to take decisive action to prevent the erosion of their rights and presence in public space.

Special Report: Exposing Afghanistan’s Pervasive, Methodical System of Gender Oppression

The UN Special Rapporteur’s annual report on human rights in Afghanistan lays bare the alarming phenomenon of an institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity and exclusion of women and girls. In the new report, Richard Bennett, the UN’s Special Rapporteur, provides an intersectional analysis of the establishment and enforcement of this institutionalized system of unparalleled gender oppression. It paints a picture of a worsening situation for women and girls.

1,000 Days—Afghan Girls’ Voices Campaign Enters Second Phase

The global community is marking a tragic milestone for human rights, children's rights, and girls' rights, as it has been 1,000 days since girls were banned from attending secondary school in Afghanistan. The ban has wiped out decades’ worth of education and development gains, as approximately 80 percent of school-aged Afghan girls and young women are out of school.

Afghan Women Struggle with Soaring Mental Health Issues

Afghanistan is grappling with a growing crisis of mental illness, particularly among its women, as highlighted in a United Nations report. Officials from the mental health department at Herat regional hospital have observed a concerning uptick in the number of women afflicted by psychological disorders in the province.

Afghan Women Speak Out About Life and Resistance Two Years After the Taliban Takeover

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on 15 August 2021 has devastated millions of Afghans. But women and girls have been particularly affected by progressively restrictive decrees that have created a virtual system of gender apartheid.