Afghanistan: Five years of systemic rights restrictions for women

Five years after the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan, women and girls face a systematic regime of exclusion described by many as gender apartheid. The Taliban has implemented a series of decrees that progressively strip women of their rights, beginning with the prohibition of secondary education for girls in September 2021, followed by a ban on university access in December 2022. According to UNESCO, approximately 2.4 million girls are currently excluded from secondary education.

Beyond education, the regime has imposed strict restrictions on women's mobility, requiring them to be accompanied by a male relative (mahram) and limiting their access to public spaces and certain modes of transport. The 2024 Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice further codified these restrictions, including the criminalization of women's voices in public. Additionally, recent decrees have facilitated child marriage by allowing a girl's silence to be interpreted as consent.

The human impact of these policies is reflected in the divergent paths of Afghan women. While some, like Husna, managed to evacuate to the United States to continue their studies, others, like Mursal, have been forced to move their entire lives indoors, relying on online education to navigate a repressive environment.