Afghan women and girls are facing the most severe women’s rights crisis in the world.
Five years since the Taliban takeover, the de facto authorities have issued more than 100 decrees that have stripped Afghan women and girls of their rights, freedoms, and dignity. Not one has been reversed.
A daily reality of erased rights
Girls are banned from school after about age 13. Women are barred from most jobs, excluded from political life, and in many areas, forbidden from walking alone in public. Many cannot make decisions within their own households. Growing shortages of women health workers, limited access to essential medicines, and restrictions that, in some communities, prevent women from being treated by male doctors mean many women can't access the health care they need. Many are living shorter, less healthy lives, and the risks of maternal death, child marriage, and violence against women are growing.
More women are reporting feeling unsafe leaving home without a male guardian. At the same time, being confined to the home, combined with the loss of education, work, community, and physical activity, has triggered a mental health crisis.
Yet just decades ago, Afghanistan was a leader in women’s rights: women gained the right to vote in 1919, the first girls’ school opened in 1921, and the 1964 constitution enshrined equality for all. That progress must only move forward, never backward.
UN Women is on the ground supporting Afghan women to meet urgent needs and to protect their rights. But we cannot do it without you. Donate now to stand with women and girls in Afghanistan.
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