Half of Afghan women interviewed leave home only once or twice a month because of the severe restrictions on their movement

[IwantToRetire]

Five years after the Taliban takeover: the normalisation of the exclusion of women and girls in Afghanistan

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 profound 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.

This unparalleled crisis of women’s and girls’ rights is at risk of being forgotten by the world.

Full article at https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/press-release/2026/08/five-years-after-the-taliban-takeover-the-normalization-of-the-exclusion-of-women-and-girls-in-afghanistan

Just shocking really. 😥

And these young men come over on boats with these sorts of views.

Still so anger the west decided to throw half the population of Afghanistan under the bus by pulling out of there.

Unfortunately it was very obvious what was going to happen to these women and girls the moment western forces left. Sometimes you just have to sacrifice for the great good, this was one of those times. Soldiers join up understanding this basic fact.

Also poor dancing boys thing is sickening too. Not just girls and women they abuse.

Hell on earth really exists

It is horrific. And Christina Lamb reporting this morning put it v well saying that if this was an ethnic or religious minority being persecuted the world would be up in arms, but it is only women....

I worked in Afghanistan a decade ago. Amazing place, amazing people, the thought of all those women and girls living under the regime sickens me.

Throughout today on BBC they have been doing special reports on Afghanistan. One is Kate Adie talking to a young woman very moving.

Will try and find links later, or if interested, have a look through.

I think the first few links on this page are from today.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/c8nq32jw5r5t

The whole thing is bloody horrific.

Funding cuts have forced CARE to close 30 clinics this year, and the World Health Organization has reported that around 150 health facilities across Afghanistan have suspended operations or closed because of funding shortages since January. Women and girls continue to bear the brunt of these compounding crises. For pregnant women, the consequences are life-threatening. Afghanistan records 638 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, the highest maternal mortality rate in Asia.

https://www.careinternational.org.uk/press-office/press-releases/five-years-on-afghan-women-need-urgent-and-long-term-investment-as-funding-cuts-force-clinic-closures/

Even if there hadn't been funding cuts by the West, primarily the US, but not forgetting UK, would the current regime in Afghanistan closed these centres anyway. Or would in the future because with no women receiving medical training, and women only allowed to be treated by other women, there wont be any women doctors to staff a health centre.

There must be some men there who don't want to see their daughters, wives and mothers being treated like this. Dying in front of their eyes. Why do they not rise up and says This Is Wrong?

In one of the BBC reports they did talk about this.

So not able to reply is appropriate detail so this is a crude summary.

The current constitution in Afghanistan is that there is a Supreme Leader who is assumed to have the religious understanding to issue edicts and others are meant to follow.

In the interview I heard they talked about they had not anticipating how extreme these edicts would become.

Whether everyone conforms for religious reasons or for fear of knowing that it will be imposed through violence, means that either way women are denied their rights.

And all though not all are reported in the west, there has been on the news reports of the punishment if not death of those who do not obey these edicts.

Am hoping that someone who has a better understanding might explain.

For those of us how have never lived in a country where the country's religion dictates what is or is not allowed it is hard to grasp. Or a country where one man can have an opinion and everyone is meant to do as they say.

Maybe because they get punished too. "Since the beginning of February, at least 61 Afghans, including nine women, have been flogged in sports stadiums packed with ordinary citizens and Taliban officials from the judiciary and administration" So that would be 52 men flogged. "The individuals were accused of adultery, eloping, sodomy and robbery, with many of them also receiving prison sentences ranging from several months to six years." It's not obvious from this article how many of each type of crime there were, nor by which sex.

www.voanews.com/a/men-women-experience-near-daily-floggings-in-afghanistan/7979256.html

Or the ones escaping and coming over here do so because they don’t hold those views?

as pp said, disagreeing with the regime tends not to work out well for most.

To add, why would men with those beliefs take the trouble of coming over here to abuse women where it’s illegal and could land them in prison/deported, when they could do it there with no repercussions?

this Is not due to the country being under a religion at all as these rules are not Islamic in the slightest. Our Prophets (pbuh) own wife was a divorced successful business woman with children from a previous marriage. Education of women is encouraged in Islam, women are celebrated and cherished. What you are witnessing with Afghanistan is cultural.

A friend Kabul told me that there have been men and boys that have stood up against this. They were never seen again. Then the Taliban married or took the women away so men and boys protect women and girls by going to work and keeping head down especially if they are only male in the family Also poverty is widespread and majority of population are under fed malnutrition is widespread life is hell for most people and women have double he’ll

A friend Kabul told me that there have been men and boys that have stood up against this. They were never seen again. Then the Taliban married or took the women away so men and boys protect women and girls by going to work and keeping head down especially if they are only male in the family Also poverty is widespread and majority of population are under fed malnutrition is widespread life is hell for most people and women have double he’ll

That is horrific. To think of it makes me feel angry and very powerless.

Um

I can't be the only person who is puzzled that this is even news? We're talking about Afghanistan here....

Every thread on MN about Afghanistan is just heart-breaking. And you can't see it it getting better anytime soon.

Someone on R4 this morning said that if it was a race of people that were being treated like that the world wouldn’t stand for it. But it’s only women 🤷🏼‍♀️

I never claimed they were Islamic. As we know many countries around the world have and are taken over by groups (usually men) who say they are the true representative of some religion or the other.

The point I was making is that the way the country is run is based on the idea that one person, as "Supreme" leader can and does issue edicts which others are happy to enforce.

In response to someone say why aren't more men standing up for their wives and daughters.

This ! What happens to these girls and women is horrific! Modern slavery to extreme and more. So , so sad 😢

As the country is now starving its citizens , would it be worth offering huge amounts of aid once they respect the rights of women, to be shown by no more killings or flogging, girls allowed to be educated and trained etc? And big publicity , leaflet dropping to show the population that the West is serious. But then I am not convinced that the west is serious about women’s rights either.

Re the men who have left…a rape gang in Norfolk have been convicted…all Afghans . Where I live an Afghan man told me there was no problem for women there.soon after he assaulted a women who worked for him. Hard to trust these men.

I think there is a strange idea on these threads that living under the Taliban is great for men. It isn’t. It’s just worse for women. The logic that only the good men leave and come to other countries is flawed.