The Life-Threatening Reality of Afghan Women

Women and girls in Afghanistan are currently facing life-threatening oppression with severe restrictions on education, work, healthcare, and basic freedoms. These issues pose grave threats to the lives of Afghan women and girls. The courage and resilience they display amidst pervasive fear is beyond comprehension. My aim is to highlight the severity of their plight through statistics and personal accounts of Afghan women. Their voices deserve to be amplified and heard above all.

Lack of Education and Work

The Taliban wish is to silence Afghan women under the guise of their “vice and virtue” laws. These laws have been categorised as repressive and vague by the United Nations[1] with it now being unlawful for a woman to use her voice in public or make direct eye contact with men outside their family.[2] The Taliban use religion to justify the laws being enforced, however, the global response from the Muslim community sign post that the Taliban have widely gone out of line with the Islamic jurisprudence.[3] Such restrictions represent an unimaginable violation of basic human rights, stripping women of their autonomy to participate in public life and contribute freely to society. The vague nature of these regulations exacerbates the oppression, as women and girls continue to live in constant fear of unintentionally breaching the rules. For example, in an interview with Yogita Limaye, an Afghan woman poignantly expressed, “If we can’t speak, why even live? We’re like dead bodies moving around”. [4]
The catastrophes deepen as women and girls over the age of 12 in Afghanistan are barred from attending school or university, prohibited from working and, in some provinces, denied access to healthcare from male doctors.[5] Consequently, women are facing “potentially life-threatening shortages” in healthcare.[6] Stripping women of these rights is endangering their lives. How can they access medical care when those qualified to treat them are denied education? Similarly, when most women are unable to access education or employment opportunities, families that depend on their income are often driven into poverty. For instance, an office worker who lost her job due to the ban on men and women working together revealed that her family endured two weeks without food.[7] This demonstrates the life-threatening consequences of denying women their rights - not just for them but for their families too.

Photo credit: Pexels

Gender-Based Violence

Afghan women and girls are also subject to brutal violence at the hands of the Taliban guards. One peaceful protester told Amnesty International that during her ten days in detention, she was severely beaten whilst the guards screamed at her.[8] Young girls have also been detained and lashed for wearing a so-called “bad hijab”. For example, one 16-year-old girl recounted being beaten despite  wearing modest attire that “even included a face mask” .[9] Additionally, between January 2022 to June 2024, 422 violent gender-based crimes against women and girls were document as   committed by Taliban members.[10] In reality, this staggering number is far from the full picture, as many such crimes go underreported, the real number is likely much higher.

This life-threatening gender-based violence is also perpetrated within families. During the same period, 141 women and girls were killed as a result of domestic violence .[11] These are not simply statistics they represent real women and girls enduring horrific gender-based abuse at the hands of their country and families.

Mental Health Crisis

The inhumane conditions in Afghanistan are making women and girls feeling isolated and causing profound damage to their mental wellbeing. A 25-year-old Afghan girl told V-Day that “The Afghan people, and especially its women, are on their own. We are more alone than ever”.[12] She expressed her true fears that one day the global community might label Afghanistan’s leaders as progressive and modern simply for reinstating some women’s rights. This cruel reality for forces Afghan women, not only to endure daily injustice and dehumanisation but also having to confront the bleak future of their homeland.

Many women state they are being eradicated from Afghan society.[13] 76% of them rate their mental health as “bad” or “very bad” since the Taliban took power.[14] These figures point towards a mental health crisis, with female suicides and suicide attempts rising across  a third of Afghanistan provinces since the Taliban took power.[15] To saying Afghan women’s rights are being taken away fails to capture the full gravity of the situation. The systematic stripping of their rights is appalling and inexcusable on its own, but the broader truth is even more devastating: the very existence of Afghan women is under threat.  They are not only being killed by their country and families but are also being driven to take their own lives under the weight of systematic oppression.

Photo credit: Pexels

The Voices of Resistance

It is important to emphasise that the voices of Afghan women remain a powerful testament to courage and resilience. Despite the harsh measures and the constant threat of violence, Afghan women continue to demonstrate remarkable bravery through protests and advocating for their rights. Movements like “Bread, Work, Freedom” symbolises their fight for basic needs and fundamental freedoms.[16] Even under the extreme risk of violence that these women are under, these protests persist in Afghanistan.[17]

Amongst these courageous women are prominent activists like Mahbouba Seraj. She remarked, "The lives of Afghan women have changed 180 degrees. As I saw the democracy that we worked so hard for over the last 20 years disappear...”.[18] Seraj, who founded the Afghan Women’s Network to combat discrimination, is an inspiring figure among many Afghan women defending their rights. Afghan women’s rights are human rights, making this not just an Afghan issue but a global one. Their courage in the face of unimaginable oppression should inspire action from the international community.

[1] Global Perspective Human Stories, ‘Afghanistan: Condemnation for new Taliban ‘virtue and vice’ order targeting women’ (United Nations News, 27 August 2024)

< https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/08/1153631> accessed 08 January 2025.

[2] Annie Kelly and Zahra Joya, ‘‘Frightening’ Taliban law bans women from speaking in public’ (The Guardian, 26 August 2024)  

<https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/26/taliban-bar-on-afghan-women-speaking-in-public-un-afghanistan> accessed 04 January 2025.

[3] Palwasha L. Kakar and Mohammad Osman Tariq, ‘Religious Leaders, Civil Society Oppose Taliban’s Vice and Virtue Law’ (United States Institute of Peace, 3 October 2024)

< https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/10/religious-leaders-civil-society-oppose-talibans-vice-and-virtue-law> accessed 08 January 2025.

[4] Yogita Limaye, ‘'If we can't speak, why live?' - BBC meets women after new Taliban law’ (BBC News, 11 September 2024)

<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20rq73p3z4o> accessed 04 January 2025

[5] Amnesty International, ’ Women in Afghanistan: The Back Story’

<https://www.amnesty.org.uk/womens-rights-afghanistan-history> accessed 04 January 2025

[6]  Birgit Schwarz, ‘Afghanistan’s Healthcare Crisis’ (Human Rights Watch, 12 February 2024)      <https://www.hrw.org/the-day-in-human-rights/2024/02/12> accessed 04 January 2025.

[7] Amnesty International, ‘Death in Slow Motion: Women and Girls Under Taliban Rule’ (Amnesty International 27 July 2022)

<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2022/07/women-and-girls-under-taliban-rule-afghanistan/> accessed 04 January 2025.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Zuhal Ahad, ’ Afghan girls detained and lashed by Taliban for violating hijab rules’ (The Guardian, 10 January 2024)

<https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/jan/10/afghanistan-girls-detained-beaten-taliban-hijab-rules> accessed 04 January 2025.

[10] Centre For Information Resilience, ’An overview of women’s rights under the Taliban: Erasure from public life, violence at home and online’ (Centre For Information Resilience, 14 August 2024) pg 13                                           <https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2024/08/14/240814_Erasure_of_Women.pdf> accessed 04 January 2025.

[11] Ibid.pg 14.

[12] VDay, ‘Sania Speaks: A Young Woman on the Ground in Afghanistan Tells the Truth of Life Under Taliban Rule’ (VDay, 01 July 2024)

<https://www.vday.org/2024/07/01/sania-speaks/> accessed 04 January 2025.

[13] Annie Kelly, ‘‘They are trying to eradicate us completely’: the passion and pain of telling the stories of Afghan women’, (The Guardian, 02 May 2024)

<https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/may/02/they-are-trying-to-eradicate-us-completely-the-passion-and-pain-of-telling-the-stories-of-afghan-women> 04 January 2025.

[14] Mark Townsend, ‘Hundreds of cases of femicide recorded in Afghanistan since Taliban takeover are ‘tip of the iceberg’ (The Guardian, 15 August 2024)

<https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/15/hundreds-of-cases-of-femicide-recorded-in-afghanistan-since-taliban-takeover-are-tip-of-the-iceberg> accessed 04 January 2025.

[15] Zahra Nader, ‘’Despair is settling in’: female suicides on rise in Taliban’s Afghanistan’ (The Guardian, 28 August 2023)

<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/28/despair-is-settling-in-female-suicides-on-rise-in-talibans-afghanistan> accessed 04 January 2025.

[16] Avina Khorasani, ‘Three Years of Repression and Protest: Why “Bread, Work, Freedom” Matters?’ (Hasht e Subh Daily, 12 August 2024)

<https://8am.media/eng/three-years-of-repression-and-protest-why-bread-work-freedom-matters/> accessed 04 January 2025.

[17] Centre For Information Resilience pg 1, n8.

[18] Mahbouba Seraj, ‘In the words of Mahbouba Seraj: “We are the hope, we are the power keeping Afghanistan together.”’ (UN Women Asia and the Pacific, 17 August 2023)

<https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/stories/in-the-words-of/2023/08/mahbouba-seraj> accessed 04 January 2025.

[19] Sabira, ‘Death in Slow Motion: Women and Girls Under Taliban Rule’ (Amnesty International, 27 July 2022).

<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2022/07/women-and-girls-under-taliban-rule-afghanistan/> accessed 04 January 2025