Taliban Rule Plunges Afghanistan into Humanitarian, Human Rights Crisis

The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan has triggered a catastrophic reversal of women’s and girls’ rights and a broader humanitarian crisis, according to multiple reports released on the third anniversary of their takeover.

UNESCO has sounded the alarm over the dramatic decline in girls’ education. Since 2021, 1.4 million girls have been barred from secondary school, and nearly 2.5 million are now out of school entirely. The overall number of children in primary education has plummeted by 1.1 million. The report indicated that the number of university students has decreased by 53 percent since 2021, raising concerns about a future shortage of graduates in essential fields. These figures point to a looming crisis, with potential increases in child labor and early marriage. Taliban policies, including the ban on female teachers for boys, have exacerbated the situation.

The Taliban’s grip on power has also led to a sharp deterioration in human rights, particularly for women and girls. Amnesty International, based on interviews with 150 Afghans, has documented widespread human rights abuses, including femicide, gender-based violence, and the suppression of civil society. The organization states that the Taliban act with “absolute impunity.” Over 300 cases of femicide have been reported since the Taliban takeover, with the regime implicated in more than half of these killings, according to the open-source investigators at the Centre of Information Resilience’s Afghan Witness project. Additionally, 840 cases of gender-based violence against women and girls were recorded in the first half of 2022 alone.

The Taliban’s imposition of strict Sharia law and suppression of dissent have created a climate of fear, with human rights defenders, journalists, and women’s rights activists facing persecution, imprisonment, and even disappearance. The collapse of the judicial system and the erosion of civil society have further compounded the crisis.

The UN has described the situation as “gender apartheid” and called for urgent action to restore women’s and girls’ rights. As the international community grapples with the humanitarian and human rights catastrophe in Afghanistan, the future of an entire generation hangs in the balance.