UN: Afghanistan is facing the worst women’s rights crisis in the world

UN Women says Afghanistan is currently facing one of the most severe women’s rights crises in the world. According to the organization’s Gender Index in 2024, nearly 80 percent of young girls in Afghanistan are neither in school, nor employed, nor have they participated in any training or vocational programs.
The organization has published a report saying that nearly four years after the Taliban returned to power, women continue to struggle to access their basic rights, including education, work and freedom of movement, despite being deprived of all their rights.
The report states that in a situation where more than 80 restrictive decrees and orders have been issued by the Taliban, prohibiting women’s access to public spaces, education and employment, signs of silent but powerful resistance are seen across the country.
UN Women, citing the Taliban’s restrictive edicts, added that in every corner of the country, a number of women have been able to create small home-based businesses, work behind the scenes on humanitarian projects, or participate in literacy and skills training programs, creating limited but vital openings for survival.
The statement emphasized that many urban women who have been banned from going to school and working are trying to adapt to the situation and prevent complete social oblivion by setting up online stores or informal education at home.
This is while the Taliban have been increasingly excluding women and girls from public spaces for nearly four years. Women are denied even their most basic rights under Taliban edicts.
UN experts and human rights activists have defined such a policy as “gender apartheid.”
During this period of women’s rights, the international community and human rights organizations have repeatedly called on the Taliban to respect the rights of women and girls and lift the restrictions imposed; however, the Taliban consider women’s rights to be an internal matter.