World
The Erosion of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan Under Taliban Rule
Explore the alarming decline of women’s rights in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return to power. This article delves into the impacts on education, employment, and personal freedoms, shedding light on the challenges faced by Afghan women today.
The Erosion of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan
In a troubling turn of events, women in Afghanistan are facing an increasingly oppressive environment under Taliban rule. Recent pronouncements have established a series of harsh regulations, including a complete ban on education beyond the sixth grade, restrictions on employment in most sectors, and limited access to public spaces such as parks, gyms, and salons. The right to travel unaccompanied is also severely restricted, requiring women to be accompanied by a male relative for any long-distance journeys. Moreover, the mandate that women must be covered from head to toe when outside adds an additional layer of control over their freedoms.
Most alarmingly, a recent 114-page manifesto released by the Taliban has codified these decrees, officially outlawing the sound of a woman’s voice outside her home. This document consolidates the various restrictions implemented throughout the Taliban’s three-year tenure, which has progressively marginalized Afghan women, pushing them further out of public life.
For countless women across the nation, this manifesto symbolizes a devastating blow to their dreams and aspirations. Many had held onto a sliver of hope that the Taliban might reconsider some of the more severe limitations they have imposed, especially after officials hinted at the possibility of reopening high schools and universities for women in the future. Sadly, for many, that hope has now been extinguished.
“We are regressing to the era of the first Taliban regime, when women were not allowed to leave their homes freely,” lamented Musarat Faramarz, a 23-year-old woman from Baghlan Province in northern Afghanistan. “I truly believed that the Taliban had evolved, but we are once again living through those dark times of oppression.”
Since the Taliban’s resurgence in August 2021, there has been a systematic rollback of the rights that women, particularly those in more progressive urban areas, had gained during the two-decade U.S. occupation. Today, Afghanistan stands as the most restrictive nation globally for women, being the only country that outright bans high school education for girls, according to experts.