Afghanistan — In Afghanistan, November 25 is not merely a symbolic date; it reflects a daily reality. Globally recognized as the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence,” for Afghan women it represents a review of a year in which violence was not an isolated event but a governing system.

This year, Taliban policies toward women became increasingly cohesive, organized, and structural: from the gradual exclusion of women from education, work, and public spaces, to public flogging, forced marriages, the compulsory deportation of Afghan migrants—especially women—from neighboring countries, and their enforced disappearance, extending to control over their bodies, movements, voices, and even presence within their own homes.

While university doors were closed to girls, hundreds of women were expelled from workplaces, and thousands were confined behind home walls, the spark of resistance did not fade. Small street gatherings, secret literacy classes, online solidarity networks, and narratives that transcended walls all demonstrated that Afghan women refuse to succumb to policies erasing their social presence; instead, they invent new forms of presence and resistance.

This dossier tells the story of a year in which violence extended from public policy to the details of daily life, while resistance also shifted from the streets into everyday existence. It is the story of women standing against systematic exclusion—not because they were permitted, but because they believe the right to life is non-negotiable.

Over four years of Taliban rule, the squeeze on women intensified day by day, forcing some activists to leave the country to save themselves and their loved ones. Reports indicate that the tragedy of Afghan women began with the April 27, 1978 coup; prior to that, women resisted a patriarchal society, but under the Soviet-backed government, their suffering increased, and they were deprived of all human rights by successive regimes. Afghan women have long said, “Being a woman is a grave crime in Afghan society.

The Rights Dimension

-Over the past wenty years,despite rest rictions,anti-women ideologies, post-revolutionary.

 

The Identity Dimension

For more than four decades, the identity of women in Afghanistan has been reduced to concepts such as “honor,” “legitimacy,” “jealousy,” and “dignity”—concepts that have collectively fueled violence and crimes against women. Over the past four years, the Taliban has sought, through depriving women of education, work, and social participation, to erase female identity more than ever before.

Under the current circumstances, families resort to marrying their daughters to relatives to avoid forced marriages imposed by the Taliban. Parents are often compelled to sell their daughters to save their own lives and the lives of their other children. Women are forced to beg or sell goods in the streets to secure food for their children, and if their behavior does not align with Taliban expectations, they are imprisoned. Today, Afghan women’s identity is confined to a compulsory covering imposed by the Taliban.

In this context, the definition of women’s identity is largely determined by religious leaders supported by countries such as the United States, Pakistan, Russia, China, India, Iran, Turkey, Qatar, and some European states. Threatened women in Afghanistan have repeatedly stated that these countries, on one hand, present them as victims of the Taliban, while on the other, claim to rescue them under the slogans of human rights promoted in their own nations.

Despite these circumstances, Afghan women have not surrendered to this imposed identity. They continue to resist courageously through secret libraries, home schools, informal beauty salons, underground civil activities, and hidden protests and marches. Women have redefined their human identity by exposing Taliban crimes and rejecting a life confined to perpetual imprisonment.

Statistics on Taliban Crimes Against Women

According to a report by a local media outlet in Afghanistan, 715 people were publicly flogged over the past three years, including 136 women.

The Taliban government does not provide any official or unified statistics on murders, suicides, or other crimes. Although the World Health Organization considers the suicide rate in Afghanistan below the global average, local reports and testimonies from Afghan doctors indicate a significant increase in female suicides after 2021. These crimes include so-called “honor crimes,” domestic violence, and politically motivated killings.

Since the Taliban’s takeover, institutions such as the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly warned that Taliban policies constitute blatant violations of women’s human rights. Numerous cases of deliberate killings of women have been reported in the provinces of Kabul, Balkh, Herat, and Badakhshan.

UN reports noted that “the Taliban and affiliated groups, in some cases, after arresting women on vague charges such as immorality or violating Sharia orders, have tortured and forcibly disappeared them. Victims’ families live in silence and fear, with no means to file complaints or seek legal recourse.”

Human Rights Watch stated in its 2023 report: “Many killings of women under Taliban rule are not recorded or are deliberately covered up, which greatly inflates the actual figures of violence.”

In addition to killings and enforced disappearances, physical punishments—especially public flogging—reveal the true nature of Taliban crimes against women. According to Amnesty International and confirmed by UNAMA, more than 1,000 cases of public flogging were recorded across various provinces between December 2022 and July 2024, with hundreds of women among the victims. Most of these punishments were carried out for charges such as “running away from home,” “illicit relations,” or “immodest clothing,” without any fair trial. The Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice bears primary responsibility for enforcing these punishments, which are carried out publicly “to set an example.”

In education, since August 2021, the Taliban have closed secondary schools for girls beyond sixth grade, and in December 2022, they also banned higher education for women. According to a UNESCO report in August 2025, over 2.2 million girls have been deprived of secondary and university education.

Due to the closure of schools and employment opportunities for women, cases of forced and child marriages have risen significantly. UNICEF and several NGOs report that in some provinces, 40–50% of girls under 18 are married. Many families, under extreme poverty, are forced to marry off daughters in exchange for money or food. The United Nations’ 2024 report emphasized that Taliban policies not only violate women’s human rights but also perpetuate cycles of poverty, violence, and despair in society.

Concurrently, in December 2022, the Taliban issued a decree banning women from working in NGOs, later expanding this prohibition to government institutions and the private sector. According to UN Women’s 2024 report, approximately 90% of female workers lost their jobs, plunging millions of women supporting households into crisis. Only a limited number are allowed to work in health or education sectors, provided they are accompanied by a male guardian.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in the same year that these policies have worsened poverty and increased women’s dependency, noting that the number of women unable to secure daily food needs has reached an unprecedented level.

Natural Disasters(Earthquakes)

-women and children were the most effected by the  earthquake that struck Afghanistan on September 9,2025.over 11.600 pregnant women required urgent medical care under extremely difficult conditions, with limited access to health services. Rapid gender-based assessments indicated that the risk of gender-based violence significantly increased in the affected areas, particularly in Kunar province, where half of the women and girls needed survivor support services even before the earthquake worsened the situation.

In temporary camps, women and girls faced serious challenges, including inadequate water and sanitation facilities, lack of privacy, and mixed queues for men and women. Humanitarian aid was largely managed by men, which heightened the risk of violence and exploitation. Women working in the medical field in the affected provinces did not exceed 10%, depriving many women of direct access to healthcare and psychosocial support.

These constraints occurred within a broader context of systematic violence against women. Reports indicate hundreds of killings and over 840 cases of sexual violence in recent years alone. Consequently, women and girls in Afghanistan were not only direct victims of natural disasters but also faced systematic threats of gender-based violence, compounded by severe deprivation of humanitarian and medical services.

Humanitarian Disasters (Refugees)

Refugee Situation:

In recent months, a large wave of deportations of Afghan refugees from neighboring countries, particularly Pakistan and Iran, has created a new humanitarian crisis. According to reports from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 1.5 million Afghans were deported from Pakistan, and around half a million from Iran, forcibly or under pressure, between October 2023 and July 2025.

Many of these individuals returned to Afghanistan without shelter, food, or basic health services. Temporary camps in Nangarhar, Kandahar, and Herat provinces are overcrowded with families who had lived abroad for years but now face harsh conditions without any viable means of survival or support.

Relief organizations have warned that these forced deportations are occurring while the country faces severe poverty, unemployment, and political restrictions, rendering it unable to accommodate such a large number of returnees.

Women and girls are among the most vulnerable groups among the returnees. Many of them had access to education, employment, and some degree of freedom in host countries. After returning, however, they face the strict Taliban laws that deprive them of education, employment, and social participation. UNICEF and UN Women reports indicate that many returning women are at risk of forced marriage, poverty, and domestic violence. The lack of support centers, the requirement of a male guardian, and the scarcity of health services make life for women in border camps extremely precarious.

Relief organizations emphasize that these forced returns occur amid Afghanistan’s structural crisis, persistent poverty, and unemployment under a government that pursues a religious-political approach in domestic and foreign policy. This has further weakened the country, leaving it incapable of accommodating the large number of returnees.

Nevertheless, Afghan women have not been mere spectators of the restrictions imposed on them over the past year. Despite bans on education, work, and public participation, they have managed to develop new forms of resistance and resilience across the country.

 

Kabul: Home Classes and Secret Education Networks

After universities and schools were closed to girls, several former teachers in the Dasht-e-Barchi, Qala-e-Fathullah, and Karte Seh areas organized secret classes for girls aged 12 to 20. These classes were held in private homes, with limited attendance of 7–12 students, to avoid attracting Taliban attention.

Subjects included mathematics, English, literature, and occasionally basic sciences. The teachers had no fixed income, and costs were covered through local donations or small family contributions. This initiative represents a form of educational resistance and the community’s determination to continue learning despite strict restrictions.

Herat: Sewing Networks and Home-Based Financial Independence

In Bel Rangkina, Shidayi, and the Sixth District, women formed small groups to achieve some financial independence through sewing, embroidery, and handicrafts. These initiatives were not only for income but also aimed to preserve women’s social identity as active members of society.

Some products were marketed online and shipped to buyers in Iran and Turkey, allowing women to engage in economic activities beyond national borders despite domestic restrictions. These initiatives represent silent resistance and social innovation in the face of marginalization.

 

Mazar-i-Sharif: Reading Circles and Documenting Narratives of Violence

Over the past year, small groups of women in Mazar-i-Sharif organized weekly reading and discussion sessions, addressing social and political issues. They also documented personal narratives related to arrests, family threats, and attacks on women’s gatherings.

Some of these accounts were encrypted and sent to human rights organizations and Persian-language media abroad to prevent erasure and to continuously document systematic violence. This activity is both documentation and a form of civil resistance, preserving collective memory in the face of repression.

Symbolic and Short-Term Protests

In Jalalabad and Nangarhar, where the Taliban enforce strict surveillance, women resorted to symbolic forms of protest instead of street gatherings, such as writing short messages on walls, scattering notes with freedom slogans, or hanging white scarves on windows.

This type of resistance, replacing mass presence with daily symbols, allowed protest messages to permeate everyday life without attracting direct attention, yet carried powerful significance, signaling ongoing defiance and resilience.

Women in Exile: Linking Inside and Outside

Dozens of female journalists, activists, and civil society members residing in Iran, Pakistan, Germany, France, and Canada have played a key role as a “communication bridge” between inside and outside Afghanistan. They received firsthand information, narratives, photos, and testimonies from within the country and published them while protecting the sources’ identities.

They relied on secure networks through apps like WhatsApp and Signal to ensure safe information transfer. Aware of the risks of torture and arrest faced by women inside Afghanistan, they designed multi-layered systems for transmitting accounts, ensuring protection and confidentiality, keeping Afghan women’s voices alive internationally.

The Triumph of Resistance Amid Crises

Ultimately, four years of Taliban rule have epitomized systematic oppression of women in Afghanistan: killings, torture, public flogging, deprivation of education and work, and forced marriages. Afghan women have not only been denied equal rights but have been pushed to second-class status, even beyond humanitarian recognition. The Afghan system, based on political Islam ideology, is experiencing deep crisis and structural corruption.

Afghanistan can only achieve democracy under a system that recognizes and strengthens women’s identities—something the Taliban government lacks and does not seek. International organizations often engage with Afghanistan and its women with hypocrisy and authoritarian calculations. The real agents behind Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis are the structures that, for their interests, have trapped the Middle East in ignorance, lack of philosophy, and absence of awareness.

Yet Afghan women have not remained silent under this destructive regime. They have created new forms of resistance despite all obstacles. Despite bans on education, work, and public participation, women across the country continue to fight for life and existence.

Through their courage and creativity, Afghan women have projected their voices to the world, proving that systematic violence and discrimination, no matter how severe, cannot suppress human will or resistance, nor be reduced to silence or submission.