Afghanistan Peace CampaignThe Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in August 2021, twenty years after their ouster by U.S. troops. Since then, all the progress for women made over the course of the U.S. occupation has been reversed, resulting in strict, fundamentalist rules, ongoing economic turmoil and severe restrictions on employment and education for women and girls.
Executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security (GIWPS) Ambassador Melanne Verveer and GIWPS Director of Policy and Programs Kimberly Hart examine the ongoing, systematic oppression in Afghanistan. They discuss how climate and humanitarian crises affect women and girls and explore ways for the international community to bolster support for Afghan women’s resistance and strengthen accountability.
Q. Since the Taliban regained control in 2021, what have been the most significant changes in women’s daily lives, especially in education, employment and freedom of movement? How uniform are these restrictions across different regions?
A. The situation for women and girls in Afghanistan today is the worst in the world. The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security (GIWPS) ranks Afghanistan #181 out of 181 countries for women’s wellbeing. The Taliban have engaged in systematic oppression regulating every aspect of women’s lives. Women are denied the right to an education, including midwifery training to stem child and maternal mortality. They can’t participate in the workplace outside their homes. They must be accompanied by a male guardian in public. They cannot access outdoor parks or raise their voices in public, even to recite the Quran. The burqa is the mandated dress code. The U.N. reports that nearly 80% of young Afghan women are out of education, employment or training, and the bans on girls education will increase child marriage by 25% and maternal mortality by at least 50%.
Over 100 edicts have been issued to essentially erase half the population, and the Taliban’s recent criminal regulations further violate women’s rights and entrench repression and violence. In a recent promulgation of the penal code, the punishments for abusing an animal are stiffer than those for abusing a woman. In the Taliban’s version of “justice,” a woman is basically considered property, akin to slavery. This is nothing less than gender apartheid.
Women across all of Afghanistan are suffering under this regime. Most of the legal restrictions imposed by the Taliban are national, but women’s experiences of these restrictions, as well as challenges ranging from poverty to the impacts of climate change, vary somewhat by region and in rural versus urban areas due to different local officials, enforcement, cultural norms and economics. A recent analysis of rural women in 12 regions painted a devastating picture of the situation of women, from access to healthcare and clean water to education and jobs, but it also showed variation across regions. Though it is important to note that while there are some unique challenges across different regions, discrimination against women and the suffering women and girls experience is a universal problem in Afghanistan.
Q. How would you assess the current humanitarian situation for women and girls in Afghanistan, particularly in relation to access to healthcare, food security and basic services?
A. Afghans are confronting a very serious humanitarian crisis. Food insecurity, the lack of healthcare and the growing lack of essential services have been exacerbated by deep reductions in international assistance and by the poor governance of the Taliban. The U.N. estimates that 45% of the population of Afghanistan is in need of humanitarian aid, while hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aid has been cut by the U.S., other countries and, as a result, the U.N.
This humanitarian crisis impacts all aspects of daily life for many Afghans. During the dry season from November 2025 to March 2026, over 17 million Afghans faced food insecurity. The European Commission has reported that nearly four million children are malnourished—approximately one in five—and about one million need medical treatment to survive. 37% of households lack soap for basic sanitation and hygiene, which can lead to outbreaks of illnesses. Public healthcare facilities are struggling to meet community needs, a problem deeply worsened by the Taliban takeover, and the country has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. As UN Women notes, “Women are living shorter, less healthy lives.” The humanitarian crisis in the country is directly impacting a wide range of universal human rights, from the right to health and the right to water to the right to freedom from discrimination, which is obvious in all aspects of the Taliban’s rule.
These challenges are exacerbated by shocks due to climate change. Afghanistan is one of the most seriously impacted countries by climate change. Recent droughts—exacerbated by warmer climate and a 25-year low in snowfall—and flooding have further robbed Afghans of their livelihoods and access to clean water and food. Kabul is running out of water due to climate change and over-extraction. It is estimated that over 90% of Afghanistan will experience droughts by 2050.
Women and girls are uniquely impacted by all of these humanitarian crises due to social and cultural norms, as well as their erasure from public life and, therefore, economic opportunity and access. And women’s ability to provide services and aid in communities has also been affected, from the ban on UN female personnel to limited internet access for women.
Q. What role could international actors play in addressing these needs within a closed, autocratic, theocratic system like Afghanistan’s? What realistic policy options are available to the international community to improve conditions for women in Afghanistan without exacerbating harm to them? How can other countries and multilaterals balance diplomatic engagement with accountability?
A. One of the most damaging misconceptions by international actors is that in incredibly challenging environments with authoritarian governments, like Afghanistan today, nothing can be done. Far too often, international actors mistake complexity for intractability or futility. There are steps that the international community can take, today and in the near future, to improve the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan and push back on the Taliban’s repressive rule.
First, humanitarian assistance is desperately needed. Funding cuts, pushback on efforts targeted to supporting women and lack of support for the multilateral system are all making a bad situation worse. The international community needs to step up its efforts to deliver humanitarian aid for Afghans while putting in place guardrails to ensure that assistance goes to those in need and not the Taliban.
Second, innovative approaches must be used to protect girls’ access to education and women’s access to employment and income, even amidst the challenges. This can range from temporary educational alternatives, including online school and home schools, to fostering opportunities for income generation for Afghan women—for example, connecting Afghan experts with virtual employment opportunities.
Third, the Taliban must be held accountable for their crimes, particularly those committed against women and girls. The pressure must be intensified and the stakes must be raised for the Taliban. The U.N.’s draft Crimes Against Humanity Treaty offers a concrete opportunity to create a new legal category for “gender apartheid.” Apartheid itself is already an international crime, defined as the “inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.” Women and girls are experiencing this same systematic repression and domination, and by establishing a new crime, the Taliban could be held accountable in the future. There are also other legal avenues to pursue justice, including international courts as well as the use of universal jurisdiction. Afghan women recently showed the world the clear legal arguments about crimes against humanity in Afghanistan via a people’s tribunal, and now is the moment for those arguments to be elevated in formal courts around the world. Additionally, sanctions and visa bans should continue to be a key tool to hold Taliban officials accountable.
Fourth, the international community must empower the participation of Afghan women in any peace talks or formal negotiations. It must be clear and unequivocal that no progress can be made without women’s full, meaningful involvement as a prerequisite.
Finally, the international community must continue speaking out against the crimes of this regime and in support of Afghan women and girls. The more time passes, the easier it is for the world to focus on the next global crisis. International actors must never forget and always uphold their commitment to Afghanistan and use every avenue—diplomatic, legal, economic—to pressure the regime while supporting Afghan people. Last year, Russia became the first country to formally recognize the Taliban government; other countries must not follow suit. Non-recognition of the Taliban is essential. We cannot normalize brutal regimes that violate human rights.
All of these steps require investing in solutions that Afghans identify and supporting Afghan-led efforts. And there are many other actions that the international community can take. The international community must demonstrate a clear unwavering commitment to the Afghan people and work to better understand what the needs are and what solutions Afghan themselves have already identified.
Q. There have been reports of Afghan women organizing and resisting restrictions in various ways. What forms of agency or resilience are you seeing among women on the ground, and what risks do they face in doing so?
A. Every day, women inside and outside Afghanistan demonstrate their agency, bravery, commitment and creativity, finding ways to push for their rights and their needs, but it’s not easy, and many take great risks in doing so. Some women are taking great risks in defying prohibitions, including seeking out education, speaking out and documenting human rights abuses and even engaging in protests. There are a range of reported punishments from imprisonment to harassment and even death. Yet despite the challenges, women inside Afghanistan are pushing back and supporting each other.
Girls in particular are especially desperate to continue their education. Before the Taliban returned to power, they were enrolled in schools, getting degrees and engaging in all kinds of pursuits, from robotics to sports competitions. Today, the Taliban are snuffing out their dreams, but many are refusing to give up, seeing education as a form of resistance. And education for girls is widely supported in the country: a recent UN Women survey found that 92% of respondents believe that “it was ‘important’ for girls to continue their schooling, with support cutting across rural and urban communities.” Girls are seizing whatever opportunity is available to learn, from secret schools in homes to online opportunities. If discovered, they can pay a heavy price. Sadly, at the same time, suicide rates are rising out of a sense of hopelessness, and roughly 80% of suicide attempts in the country are committed by women.
The Taliban’s brutal repression of women continues every day in Afghanistan, including targeting women themselves as well as their families and loved ones. This manifests both through its broad criminal code and edicts as well as through targeted attacks of former government officials, those seen as Western allies and communities perceived as anti-Taliban. And increasingly, the Taliban is resorting to transnational repression, harassing its critics outside of the country.
Q. In your opinion, are overall conditions for women in Afghanistan any better in 2026 than they were before the U.S. invasion in 2001?
A. This is a challenging question, because the Taliban has been consistent in their oppression of women and girls, both in the first Taliban regime and today. That is why there was great apprehension over the Taliban takeover in 2021, and so many experts on women’s rights warned about the risks. While the Taliban told the world they would be good for women and girls and their good treatment would be consistent with Islam, as Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” The Taliban returned to an extremist version of Islam, not condoned in any other Islam-majority country or with many of the teachings of the Quran. The harshest practices have returned and in some ways have gotten even more extreme since the emboldened Taliban took power, with more systematic repression and rollback of key progress made before 2021. As the global backlash on women intensifies today, it only gives more leeway to the Taliban to continue their brutal repression. The world must respond by doubling down on its support for Afghan women and girls and their demands for freedom, dignity and equal rights.