South Asia has long treated women as property from honor killings and forced marriages to acid attacks and dowry deaths. But Afghanistan is ...
South Asia has long treated women as property from honor killings and forced marriages to acid attacks and dowry deaths. But Afghanistan is the world’s starkest reminder of how the systematic erasure of women is sanctioned by the state.
Written by Walija Fatima
.jpg)
Afghanistan today is the only country in the world where women are legally forbidden from existing in public spaces as full human beings. While stray animals roam freely in Kabul’s streets, women are confined to their homes, denied education, and erased from public life. In Afghanistan, an animal can roam unbothered, but a woman cannot. A dog can walk the streets, but a girl must have a male guardian to step outside. She cannot study. She cannot work. She cannot speak. She cannot breathe without permission. This is not culture. This is not religion. This is state-sponsored gender apartheid. The Taliban’s systematic destruction of women's rights from banning education and employment to restricting movement and healthcare, is not about cultural differences or religious interpretation; it is the calculated eradication of women's humanity under the guise of governance.
South Asia has long treated women as property from honor killings and forced marriages to acid attacks and dowry deaths. But Afghanistan is the world’s starkest reminder of how the systematic erasure of women is sanctioned by the state. The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights clearly states: “Everyone has the right to education.” “Everyone has the right to freedom of movement.” Everyone. Not “everyone except women.” Not “everyone if approved by a man.” Yet, an entire generation of Afghan girls remains locked out of classrooms. The international community’s tepid response—half-hearted condemnations without meaningful action reveals the hypocrisy that underpins global human rights declarations. This is not just a women’s issue. This is a human rights crisis that demands action, and it is no longer about gender, it is about humanity. Why are only women fighting for women? Where is the rest of the world? When will women finally be treated as humans?
Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, women have been subjected to extreme measures of oppression, particularly in education. The Taliban’s education bans have devastated the lives of millions of young Afghan girls and women. On March 23, 2022, just seven months after the Taliban took control, they announced the ban on secondary school education for girls, an unprecedented blow to the aspirations of 1.1 million girls who had once dreamed of a brighter future. For 80% of school-aged girls in Afghanistan, this represented a harsh reality where education was no longer a choice but a forbidden privilege.
The impact has been severe. UNESCO estimates that more than 3.5 million girls are currently out of school in Afghanistan due to the Taliban’s restrictions. "I never imagined my future would be locked away in a single moment," said Amina, a 15-year-old student from Kabul. “One day I was attending school, and the next day, the doors were shut. My dreams were shattered overnight”.
The Taliban’s actions didn’t stop at secondary education. By December 2022, the Taliban imposed a sweeping ban on university education for women, halting the academic careers of tens of thousands of female students across the country. Women were prohibited from sitting for entrance exams starting in January 2023, effectively obliterating any chance for higher education. "I had worked so hard to get into university, but now, all my efforts are worthless," said Zahra, a 19-year-old who was forced to abandon her medical studies. UN Women condemned these actions, stating, “This is a gross violation of Afghan women’s human rights, and it leaves a generation of young women unable to fulfill their potential”. The UN continues to push for the restoration of education rights for Afghan girls, but concrete actions to enforce this have been minimal.
Despite this, Afghan women continue to defy the ban with acts of resistance. Many girls secretly continue their education, holding underground classes, often at great personal risk. “We cannot give up. We will learn in the shadows if we have to,” said Samira, a 17-year-old from Herat who has been attending secret study sessions with other girls in her neighborhood.
But these acts of resistance come at a steep price. The Taliban has increasingly resorted to violence and intimidation to crush any form of dissent. In December 2023, Taliban forces raided a private home where a group of young women were holding a secret study session. “They barged in, beat the girls, and arrested them. Some of them were whipped in front of their families as a warning,” said Laila, a relative of one of the girls arrested. This kind of brutality has become the norm. The UN Human Rights Council condemned the actions, with Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stating, “The treatment of women in Afghanistan amounts to gender-based apartheid and is one of the most severe gender-based human rights violations in the world”.
The Taliban’s justification for these brutal measures is rooted in their distorted interpretation of Islam, yet Islamic scholars from across the globe have condemned their actions. Dr. Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel laureate, remarked, “The Taliban’s actions are not only a misinterpretation of Sharia law, but they are also a denial of the rights that Islam has granted to women”. Similarly, Mufti Taqi Usmani, a prominent Pakistani Islamic scholar, criticized the Taliban, saying, “Islam empowers women with education, freedom, and dignity. What the Taliban is doing has nothing to do with Islam”.
Internationally, the United Nations has expressed grave concern over the situation. In a statement released on March 1, 2023, the UN Security Council condemned the Taliban’s policies, calling them a “clear violation of human rights”. However, despite these calls for action, the international community has failed to enforce any substantial measures. The European Union and the United States have imposed targeted sanctions on Taliban leaders, yet their diplomatic efforts remain largely symbolic, with no substantial pressure on the Taliban to reverse their policies. “Sanctions have not moved the Taliban. We must be more creative, more assertive,” said Amnesty International, calling for more than just token sanctions.
The world has remained passive, allowing the Taliban to continue their systematic oppression of Afghan women. As the World Bank reports, the exclusion of women from education has already led to an estimated $1.4 billion loss in Afghanistan's GDP, a staggering blow to an already fragile economy. The human toll is just as devastating. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that the ongoing education ban will lead to a “catastrophic impact on the health, social mobility, and economic opportunities of Afghan women,” further perpetuating the cycle of poverty and gender inequality in the country.
The Taliban’s war on Afghan women is not merely a regional crisis it is a global moral failure. Their decrees erase women from public life, silence their voices, and suffocate their futures. But even more alarming than the Taliban’s cruelty is the world’s indifference. Despite international condemnation, no meaningful action has followed. The global community has failed to turn outrage into accountability, and in doing so, has allowed the systematic erasure of millions of lives to continue. This is not just a denial of education or employment, it is a denial of existence. Women are being stripped of the tools that make them human: freedom, dignity, and choice. The Taliban do not fear women because of religion; they fear them because empowered women threaten the foundations of oppressive power structures.
And yet, while Afghan women endure the consequences of betrayal, the world continues to negotiate, to hesitate, to retreat. This is the second time in twenty years they have been left behind. How many more times must their hopes be crushed before the world acknowledges their worth? History will not judge the Taliban alone, it will judge all those who stood by. “Never Again” has become a hollow phrase, and the promise of universal rights has proven selective. This moment is not just a political crisis, it is the moral test of our time. And the women of Afghanistan ask the question that echoes across every boundary, every culture, every conscience: If not now, when? If not us, who?
.jpg)
