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Women's Rights in Afghanistan

Women During a Protest for Afghan Women's Rights
Women During a Protest for Afghan Women's Rights

The Taliban's 2021 takeover in Afghanistan was a disaster for women's rights, causing an almost complete reversal of the hard-won human rights progress over previous decades.

Our latest reports show surges in child marriage, denial of education, torture, arbitrary detention for those fleeing abuse & arrest of protesters. Women are now banned from even entering public parks and gyms, and cannot leave the house without a male chaperone.

As the violence and oppression against women intensifies, we must support Afghan women and demand for mechanisms to protect their rights.

Explainer

Women in Afghanistan: The Back Story

It hasn't always been this way. Women in Afghanistan used to work, wear what they want, play sports. They had the vote before women in the US. But decades of conflict and violence, particularly under the Taliban, saw women and girls confined to their homes, unseen and unheard.
Action

32,300 people called on the UK government to support women in Afghanistan

Many thanks to the tens of thousands of you who took action calling on the UK to safeguard the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.
Report

Afghanistan: Death In Slow Motion (2022)

Amnesty International's new comprehensive investigation on women and girls in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over.

Afghanistan: Calls for legal action against Taliban is 'vital step' to secure justice for women and girls

The Taliban’s violation of women’s and girls’ rights likely amounts to a crime against humanity

Global: Women's and girls' rights in Afghanistan must be a priority at UN-hosted Doha meeting

The rights of women and girls in Afghanistan are non-negotiable
Football Welcomes

“From playing for fun to building a movement”: Khalida Popal on football as a platform for women’s rights in Afghanistan

Khalida Popal started a movement for women’s rights through football in Afghanistan. After the Taliban returned to Kabul in 2021, she helped evacuate more than 500 players and their families. Read her story

Afghanistan: Taliban double public execution condemned

Thousands watch as victims' relatives shot two men to death in a stadium in Ghazni yesterday

Pakistan: Government must stop mass detention and deportation of Afghan refugees – new testimonies

More than 170,000 Afghans forced to leave the country

UK: Refugee footballers meet Keir Starmer after exhibition match with Women's Parliamentary team

Afghan refugee team and Comfort Angels met football fan Keir Starmer at Parliament after victorious match against women’s parliamentary team

Pakistan: Afghan refugees harassed, jailed and forced to pay bribes - new testimonies

Deeply flawed relocation schemes with lack of safe and legal routes for Afghans to reach the UK and other countries

Afghanistan: Taliban's 'collective punishment' of civilians in Panjshir province is a war crime - new investigation

Video and eyewitness evidence shows widespread human rights abuses against civilians in Panjshir
Report

Afghanistan: The Taliban's War On Women (2023)

Our joint report with the International Commission of Jurists: "The Taliban's War On Women" report on The Crimes Against Humanity of Gender Prosecution In Afghanistan.

Australia: Former SAS soldier arrested for alleged war crime in Afghanistan is 'encouraging first step'

Four-year inquiry found evidence of grave human rights violations by Australian special forces soldiers in Afghanistan

Afghanistan: UN Human Rights Council must address Taliban's ongoing 'relentless abuses'

New evidence of attacks, abductions and enforced disappearances against civilians in Panjshir

Afghanistan: UN Security Council must take concrete steps to end the 'systemic decimation' of women and girls' rights in the country

Taliban’s ban on women and girls from accessing work, education, sports and public spaces is a ‘humanitarian disaster’

Afghanistan: Public execution by the Taliban is 'cruel, inhuman and degrading'

First public execution since the Taliban’s return to power

Afghanistan: Kabul blasts are 'shamefaced reminder' of the Taliban's failure to protect minorities

Urgent steps must be taken to ensure the safety of all people under the Taliban’s rule, especially the members of minority communities.

Afghanistan: New investigation reveals ‘cruel pattern’ of Taliban torturing and executing Hazaras

Six people including a 12-year-old girl killed in night raid on family home

Afghans fleeing Taliban shot at, detained and sent back at Iranian and Turkish borders - new report

Iranian security forces killed 11 people - including 16-year-old boy - though death toll likely to be significantly higher

Afghanistan: One year of Taliban rule underlines 'bleak future' for the country - report

Ban on peaceful protests as well as revenge killings, executions of alleged resistance fighters and other crimes could amount to war crimes

Afghanistan: 'Suffocating crackdown' on rights of women and girls over past year under Taliban

Detained protesters beaten on breasts and between legs ‘so they cannot show world’