In Afghanistan, where women have been erased by Sharia law, the Taliban are celebrating five years since their return to power

Last June, in the western Afghan city of Herat, a group of demonstrators took to the streets of the Jebrail neighbourhood to protest against the denial of Afghan women’s rights. Men were also present amongst the demonstrators, and the slogans echoed those of the Iranian women’s protests: ‘azadi’ (freedom) and ‘Women, work and freedom’. It all began with the arrest of at least thirty women for failing to comply with the dress code imposed by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The authorities responded with repression, first with batons, then by opening fire on the crowd: according to the United Nations, two people, including a child, were killed and at least thirty were injured. Around the same time, a 15-year-old Afghan girl was killed, along with her mother, by a Taliban official whilst he was attempting to abduct her to force her into marriage.

Following their seizure of power in Afghanistan on 15 August five years ago, in their first interviews with journalists the Taliban pretended that girls’ schools would soon be reopened, justifying their repressive measures on the vague grounds of ‘security’. In reality, over the past five years, the regime in Afghanistan has progressively dismantled the rights of more than half its population, issuing over a hundred decrees year after year targeting women and girls, “institutionalising discrimination and depriving them of their fundamental rights, with profound consequences for their lives and their communities”, writes UN Women in its latest report marking the fifth anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Just one month after returning to power, in September 2021, one of the first measures implemented by the Taliban was the closure of schools for girls over the age of twelve. Women working in government offices were told to stay at home, marking the start of restrictions on employment, including the requirement to be accompanied by a mahram – a male guardian – when travelling, and to be examined only by female medical staff. In May 2022, women and girls who were ‘neither too old nor too young’ were required to cover their faces with a full veil, leaving only their eyes visible; in November, they were banned from the capital’s parks, gyms, swimming pools and public baths; in December 2023, a ban was introduced on attending university and then beauty salons – the last remaining places where women could meet or work. A law passed in August 2024 prohibited women from even raising their voices in public and from working for NGOs or international organisations. The latest decree, passed last June, legally authorises child marriage and allows a minor girl’s silence to constitute consent to marriage. The exclusion of Afghan women from education, work, public life, the judicial system and healthcare has so severely restricted their freedom of movement that more than half say they leave the house twice a month or less; nearly three-quarters told UN Women they feel unsafe going out without a mahram; over half avoid public places altogether, such as markets and healthcare facilities; and only 7 per cent have retained a job.  The result is a crisis in Afghan women’s mental health, as well as their physical health – soon there will be no female healthcare workers left to treat them – and if the ban on education were to continue until 2030, according to the United Nations, “over two million girls will be deprived of education beyond primary school, in a country that already has one of the lowest female literacy rates in the world”.

Over the past five years, the Taliban have issued numerous decrees to curtail media independence and impose restrictions on press freedom. Hundreds of independent newspapers and media outlets have been shut down, and most journalists have either left the country or abandoned the profession. Activists and dissidents have been subjected to arbitrary detention and torture, whilst hundreds of members of the previous government’s security forces have been victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions.  Last January, the regime enacted a new Code of Criminal Procedure for the courts, which provides for prison sentences and flogging for anyone who insults the leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (20 lashes and six months’ imprisonment) or the supreme leader of the Taliban (39 lashes and one year’s imprisonment), thereby criminalising any criticism of the authorities. The law also punishes any contact with opponents of the government, and vague definitions of “rebellion”, “subversion” and “heresy” carry severe penalties, “providing the regime with a new and powerful legal weapon to silence journalists”, writes the French NGO Reporters Without Borders on the fifth anniversary of the Taliban law.

It is not only Afghan women who are bearing the brunt of five years of Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The entire population is in the midst of a protracted crisis, exacerbated by the return, at the end of 2023, of over six million Afghans from neighbouring countries, which has worsened the emergency situation in a country already on the brink of collapse.

Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries, Pakistan and Iran, have deported or forcibly repatriated nearly five million Afghans. Turkey, too, has turned Afghans away at the border and deported many directly to Afghanistan, often without properly examining their applications for protection, leaving them to face repression by the regime. Following the suspension of most international aid and with health services severely weakened, nearly half the population now requires food and medical assistance – according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, some 21.9 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance – over 3.7 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition, the maternal mortality rate in Afghanistan is among the highest in the world. International aid available for the humanitarian response has been cut by almost 70 per cent, falling from $3.3 billion in 2022 to $1 billion in 2025.  This year, only $450 million in aid has been allocated to tackle the humanitarian crisis: this represents just 26 per cent of the $1.7 billion required.

In addition to internal problems, over the past year the Taliban government has found itself having to deal with the war on the border with Pakistan: in February, Pakistani air strikes on Kabul and other Afghan provinces, along with cross-border attacks claimed by both sides, sparked an ‘open war’ between the two countries, as announced by Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif. According to the Afghan human rights organisation Rawadari, between December 2024 and June 2026, the Pakistani army is reported to have killed or wounded more than 1,180 Afghans, including women and children, causing the displacement of over 29,000 families, whilst Pakistan continues to accuse Kabul of harbouring militants who organise attacks against Islamabad.

The Afghan army is ill-equipped to face both the Pakistani forces and the resistance groups, which in recent weeks have launched a number of successful armed operations in the north-eastern province of Badakhshan. On 17 July, the newly formed group Sepahiyan-e Mihan, which means ‘Front of Patriotic Soldiers’, occupied the centre of Yaftali Sufla – a strategic outpost in the province – for several hours, marking the first time a provincial capital has been lost under the Afghan regime in five years. According to some experts and analysts, resistance forces have recently shifted from guerrilla warfare to an operational phase, and there are signs pointing to a possible increase in cooperation between the groups: “It is a fact that the Taliban, who are approaching the fifth anniversary of their return to power in Afghanistan on 15 August, are facing a more intense operational pace in Badakhshan,” wrote Will Selber, a retired officer from US Central Command, a few days ago in the Long War Journal published by the Foundation for Defence of Democracies.

Russia is the only country to officially recognise the Taliban government, yet in recent years many nations have opened a dialogue with Afghan leaders. Embassies have been opened in the capital with an objective stated by the Foreign Ministry itself: to establish relations with all countries in order to gain international legitimacy. Envoys from China, Japan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have arrived in Kabul to sign trade agreements, followed by those from Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, seeking sea access via Afghanistan for their trade routes. Following the outbreak of hostilities with Pakistan, India too has strengthened its ties with the Taliban government as part of its anti-Pakistan strategy, granting an exemption from sanctions last year to allow the Taliban Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, to visit the country. Even European countries, despite condemning the Taliban’s decrees, have behind closed doors opened the door to diplomacy with Kabul: as recently as last June, the European Commission invited and met with a Taliban delegation in Brussels to discuss forced repatriations from EU countries. The Taliban have initiated talks on the repatriation of Afghan citizens without the right of residence in Europe, whilst the European Commission has emphasised that the aim was to speed up the repatriation of individuals convicted of serious crimes or considered a threat to security. Despite concerns over the deportation of Afghan citizens who could face torture and abuse at the hands of the Taliban, some European countries, such as Sweden and the United Kingdom, have urged the Commission to deepen negotiations with Kabul – an issue of “fundamental importance”, according to the Swedish Minister for Migration, Johan Forssell. But that is not all. The latest European country to have struck an agreement with the Taliban is Germany, a pact that allows the Taliban to consolidate their diplomatic presence in Germany in exchange for cooperation on the repatriation of Afghan migrants to Afghanistan.  It is the first European country to officially allow officials appointed by the Taliban to work in diplomatic missions across Europe, and this casts considerable doubt on the repatriation policy that Brussels intends to promote in states where Sharia, Islamic law, is in force.

Last Sunday, just a few days before the anniversary of the Taliban regaining control of Afghanistan, two Afghan members of the United Nations political mission in the country were arrested without charge and without the right to receive visitors, demonstrating that, five years on, not even humanitarian organisations and aid to the population are immune to Kabul’s control.