The current situation in Afghanistan disproportionately impacts women in all aspects of their lives.
On August 15, 2021, the Taliban entered Kabul militarily and instituted a totalitarian dictatorship. While much of the international focus rightly remains on the humanitarian crisis, women and girls have lost all their human rights and freedoms. The United Nations estimates that 95% of the population doesn’t have enough food, and 28 million face starvation, mostly impacting women, children, and elders.
There is massive unemployment, primarily due to women being barred from their workplaces. The Taliban has created a government of surveillance and has been obsessed with the lives of women. The former judicial system has vanished and women can no longer seek justice. A once thriving media struggles to exist as they are not allowed to report the reality and criticize or hold any Taliban official accountable. The Taliban’s continuous human rights violations and freedom remain a huge concern for the Afghan people.
The following list maps areas that face key challenges under the Taliban Interim Government (TIG) since August 2021.
- Humanitarian crisis
- Rollback on women’s human rights
- Vanishing media and freedom of speech
- Shrinking civil society
- Collapsing health system
- Government operating at minimum capacity
- Afghanistan has no Constitution under the Taliban
- Political crisis and a completely exclusive government of only the Taliban members
- Economic crisis
- Judicial system has disappeared and the Taliban Ministry of Vice and Virtue issue all legal directives.
- Terrorism threats are spiking and Afghanistan has become home to many of these groups.
- Education for women and girls doesn’t exist under the Taliban.
- Migration and internal displacement has been rising under the Taliban.