Afghanistan faces gender apartheid under Taliban rule

Five years after the Taliban's return to power in Kabul, the regime has implemented a system of state-mandated patriarchy that the United Nations is seeking to classify as ‘gender apartheid’. Under a penal code introduced in January 2026, the regime has legalized domestic violence, banned girls from attending school, and removed the requirement for female consent in marriage for those aged 15 and older.

Sima Samar, a former Afghan minister and human rights advocate, has documented these shifts in her memoirs, titled ‘Outspoken’. Samar, a member of the Hazara minority and a former pillar of the democratic government between 2001 and 2021, describes the current situation as a systematic effort to annihilate the rights and presence of women in Afghan society.