Since seizing control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban has introduced a number of laws that suppress women’s rights. The targets of these laws vary: Some affect women’s rights in the workplace and access to education, while others set requirements for dressing, participating in sports and women’s whereabouts.
In 2001, a report by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor interviewed Faranos Nazir, a 34-year-old woman in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. “Because of the Taliban, Afghanistan has become a jail for women. We haven’t got any human rights. We haven’t the right to go outside, to go to work, to look after our children,” she said.
Currently, women’s rights in Afghanistan closely resemble the previous Taliban regime that ruled from 1996 to 2001. Women were banned from attending school, working, participating in politics, showing their skin, leaving the house without a male chaperone and accessing healthcare during the regime.
Two years after the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban, women’s rights were written into the new constitution. Education levels across the country increased from around one million female students enrolled in 2001 to around 10 million in 2018. Women’s rights continued to improve until August 2021, when the Taliban launched a military offense that led to the Taliban’s return to power.
The Taliban initially claimed to respect women’s rights with their interpretation of the Sharia, a system of religious law based in Islam. Throughout 2021 and 2022, Taliban leaders went back and forth between banning and reopening secondary schools for girls. However, as of Dec. 22, 2022, there was officially no formal education for girls past grade six.
In response to the Taliban’s 2021 takeover, women in Afghanistan took to the streets to protest. According to Amnesty International, many of them carried signs denouncing the Taliban and its policies surrounding women’s rights, demanding a legitimate government based on the people’s votes.
However, these protests were quickly shut down by Taliban members’ violent intervention. In February and March 2022, armed Taliban members attacked many protestors, including men, women and children. “They beat the men, the plea and cries of women and children spread across the aisle,” Wahida Amiri, a member of Afghanistan’s Women Spontaneous Movement, wrote in an Amnesty International article. “We faced brutality during our detention.”
Melissa Cornett is a human rights lawyer and independent researcher in Afghanistan specializing in women’s rights. “The big difference with the 1990s is [the country] didn’t have 20 years of very pushy women empowerment programs and education [that] did bring a lot of positive changes,” she said in an interview with The Urban Legend. “You have an entire generation of women who [are] educated and who are not going to simply forget what they’ve learned because of the Taliban.”
Cornett also noted the alarming state of women’s education in Afghanistan. “It [is] the only country in the world where girls cannot go to school past grade six [and] women cannot go to university,” she said.
Women in Afghanistan have reflected on the devastation of losing their education. “I had many hopes and aspirations to be a productive member for my family and society,” a former Kabul University student said in an interview with the Kabul Crisis Group in December 2022. “In one day, all these hopes were dashed.”
However, this view is not universally held by people who identify as Muslim. “Their treatment of women has absolutely nothing to do with Islamic [law],” Cornett said. “There’s absolutely nothing in Islam against girls’ education or women’s rights to work. That’s why a lot of Muslim countries have been strongly condemning the Taliban rule.”
Outside organizations have made efforts to pressure the Taliban to allow girls to attend schools and provide them proper education. But, on June 8, 2023, the Taliban banned all foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from providing educational programs. They also banned women from working for national and international NGOs.
According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), over 500,000 children, including 300,000 girls, have lost access to education as a result of this ban. Additionally, the Taliban leaders have shut down accelerated courses for girls, prohibited girls over ten from attending preliminary schools and required girls in fourth through sixth grade to wear face coverings, preferably a burka.
In addition to limited educational rights, women cannot occupy public administration roles. They are prohibited from working in fields other than health and education. These fields also prefer to hire men over women due to pressure from the Taliban, forcing women to depend on men economically, according to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
In a March 2023 United Nations Afghanistan report, an anonymous woman said, “It is so unfair to be deprived of your rights because of your gender. Working is not only my dream or a human right, it is also the way I support my family.”
The effects of the Taliban’s employment restrictions extend to the economy, impacting people of all genders. The United Nations Development Programme estimated that banning women from employment has cost Afghanistan around 5% of its gross domestic product, one billion United States dollars.
One of the most onerous of the restrictions that the Taliban places on women is their lack of autonomy in public spaces. “[Women] cannot meet in gyms, beauty salons, segregated parks, hammams or public bathhouses [anymore],” Cornett said. “They cannot leave their home if they’re not accompanied by Mahram, a male member of the family, and they have to cover their faces in public. They [also] cannot have their voices heard in public.”
These limitations go beyond physical effects. “It’s not only the economic, civil and political rights being taken away from them, but also the very thing that allows you to exist as a member of society: Showing your face [and] talking to someone in the streets,” Cornett said. “[Women have] effectively been made victim of an effort [to be] completely invisibilized and dehumanized.”
The Taliban has fundamentally impacted how some Afghan women feel in their own country. In the previously cited 2023 UN Afghanistan report, the same anonymous Afghan woman said, “When I go outside, I’m afraid. I am afraid that they will stop me and beat me.”
According to Cornett, Taliban leaders have effectively shifted the responsibility of controlling women and girls to local communities and families. In many cases, these families either support the regime’s values or fear the consequences of defying the Taliban. As a result, family members often advise women to leave their jobs.
Members of the Urban community have noticed how perceptions of the Taliban’s decrees have shifted since they began stripping away men’s rights. “[When] the Taliban was done taking all the women’s rights away, … they started forcing the men to do stuff like [removing] facial hair. And [now] the [men] suddenly have a problem with it,” said Paul Tawadrous ’26, co-leader of the Middle Eastern North African affinity space (MENA).
Currently, women continue to struggle while resisting the regime. “It’s almost impossible for [women] to do any public form of activism. … [Even a] woman who continues working or [a] woman who opens secret schools is something we qualified as a form of resistance,” Cornett said. “What [Afghan women] tell us is they just want to be recognized as human beings.”
Outside organizations and foreign nations have found it harder to help women in Afghanistan due to the Taliban’s strength and violence. “The diplomats tried a lot. [Yet] none of them have managed to get a single concession of women’s rights so far,” Cornett said. “Now everyone is just trying to get Afghan women out [of the country]”
Frannie Oakes ’26 recognized the anger and privilege she felt when seeing the Taliban’s treatment of women. “Seeing how women under the Taliban are treated in the news makes me really angry because it’s another example of [how] men can suppress women’s freedom and rights,” she said. “Even though it’s not happening here, it’s still extremely important that we speak up because we have the privilege to do so.”
Despite the challenges in supporting Afghan women, there are still ways to help. Cornett said, “In terms of supporting women in Afghanistan, [we should be] giving them safe pathways for migration so they can continue education and work. … I don’t think we realize nearly how hard it is to migrate.”
Cornett emphasized the emotional toll of displacement. She said, “It’s extremely hard not to know when you’re going to be able to go back to your own country. So I think we also should be better in how we welcome these women when they’re just restarting their lives from scratch.”