- August 15 marks four years since the world watched as the Taliban swept back into Kabul and reclaimed power in Afghanistan. The U.S. withdrawal marked the end of a twenty-year chapter, but for Afghan women and girls, it began an era of relentless rollbacks that has touched every part of their lives. What began as […]
- Today in Afghanistan, public squares and sports stadiums have become sites of fear, humiliation, and state-enforced cruelty. Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have revived one of their most archaic and oppressive tools of control– public flogging. Men and women alike are whipped in front of crowds, often accused of “moral crimes” or […]
- In the latest crackdown on Afghan women’s basic freedoms, the Taliban have launched a sweeping campaign of arrests, abductions, and abuse across Kabul—targeting women and girls for their clothing, visibility, and defiance. Human rights defenders are calling the campaign a calculated assault on dignity and a defining feature of Afghanistan’s entrenched system of gender apartheid. […]
- In a deeply troubling move, the U.S. Department of State has notified Congress that it will eliminate the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE), which is the only dedicated office tasked with supporting Afghans left behind following the Afghan evacuation in 2021. This change is set to take effect July 1, 2025, unless Congress intervenes. […]
- In a landmark decision that reinforces international pressure on the Taliban, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has publicly disclosed arrest warrants for two of the regime’s top leaders, Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, on charges of gender persecution, a crime against humanity under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute. This […]
- In a landmark move with sweeping implications for human rights and diplomacy, Russia has officially recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The announcements, made by the Russian and the Taliban Foreign Ministries on Thursday, July 3, mark the first time a major global power has extended formal recognition to the Taliban since […]
- At the opening of the UN Human Rights Council’s 59th Session in Geneva, Afghan women took center stage, urging the international community to formally recognize Taliban rule as gender apartheid and take concrete steps toward justice. Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, women and girls in Afghanistan have faced what many legal […]
- In a bipartisan effort, Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) have publicly denounced the Trump administration’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for over 8,000 Afghan nationals currently living in the United States. The senators expressed their profound concern in a joint letter addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland […]
- The Trump Administration announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghan refugees in the U.S. today, a move affecting approximately 14,600 Afghan refugees already residing in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that the TPS designation for Afghanistan will expire on May 20, 2025, with termination effective July 12, […]
- Afghanistan has seen a stark reversal in progress in all sectors of their society after the Taliban took over in 2021. However, one of the most deeply impacted sectors has been women’s health. Before 2021, there had been 20 years of growth in the health sector. Maternal mortality had decreased from 1,345 deaths/100,000 live births […]
