17/08/2026
Half a decade after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Afghanistan has systematically dismantled the rights of half its population, making it a global outlier with no parallel in the modern world.
Over the past five years, the de facto authorities have issued more than 100 decrees targeting women and girls, institutionalising discrimination and stripping them of their fundamental rights – with significant consequences for their lives and for their communities, according to new UN Women data.
In the past year alone, this exclusion of women and girls from education, employment, public life, justice systems, and healthcare has only intensified, entrenching what remains the world’s most severe women’s rights crisis. A crisis that is at risk of being forgotten by the world.
Afghan women are not equal before the law. Decrees issued in 2026 have abolished legal equality, placing husbands in a position of authority over their wives, limiting women’s access to justice, and criminalising marital violence only when it causes severe visible injuries. These measures also make divorce far harder for women while preserving men’s unilateral right to end a marriage and implicitly permit child marriage.
The health crisis is worsening. Confinement to the home and rising exposure to violence are driving a mental health crisis, with seven in ten women reporting their mental health as ‘bad’ or ‘very bad.’ Access to healthcare has become more difficult due to mobility restrictions and shortages of female nurses and doctors, while maternal mortality remains among the highest in the world at 638 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024.
Women are increasingly excluded from public life. More than half now leave home twice a month or less, nearly three-quarters feel unsafe without a male guardian, and many avoid markets and health facilities altogether. An expanding system of surveillance and detention powers is fuelling fear and insecurity.
Girls remain out of school. Afghanistan is the only country to enforce a systematic ban on girls attending high school and women attending university, putting the future workforce at risk; up to 25,000 female teachers and health workers could be lost by 2030.
Women are also excluded from the workforce. Only 7% of women are employed compared with 84% of men, and this exclusion is projected to cost the economy over $1.3 billion AUD between 2024 and 2026.
Read more here:
https://unwomen.org.au/publications-and-resources/five-years-on-afghan-womens-futures-at-a-crossroads/
