Five Years On: The Taliban's Systematic Push to Erase Women from Public Life

Five years after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, Afghan women and girls remain trapped at the center of a deepening human rights crisis, according to a report by The Media Line, which spoke with multiple Afghan women in exile. The report, published to mark the anniversary, describes how Taliban authorities have systematically pushed women and girls out of public life, dismantling their access to education, employment, movement, and civic participation. As reported by the Jerusalem Post, The United Nations says Afghan women and girls are entering their fifth year of near-total exclusion from public life, with girls still barred from education beyond the sixth grade.

The Taliban issued a decree banning girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade just one month after taking power, according to Forbes. Five years later, the ban remains in place, and Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where secondary and higher education are closed to girls and women. The ban was part of a series of more than 100 decrees targeting the rights of girls and women, blocking them from attending secondary school and university and restricting their movement and access to public spaces, effectively erasing them from public life.

"The School Ban Has to End"

More than 2.6 million girls in Afghanistan have now been denied their right to an education since the ban was imposed, according to UNICEF, which continues to support learning in Afghanistan and calls on authorities to lift restrictions. "The situation is truly heartbreaking," says Daniel Timme, UNICEF Afghanistan Chief of Communications, who described meeting a 15-year-old girl in tears in Daikundi Province, central Afghanistan, begging for help to return to school. "The school ban has to end because it's stealing the future of millions of girls," Timme said in a statement to Forbes.

UNICEF says that keeping girls out of school has impacts far beyond the classroom. Girls who are not in school are more likely to be forced into child labor or child marriage, and are more at risk of experiencing abuse and gender-based violence. Child brides are more likely to become pregnant during adolescence, and their children experience higher rates of under-5 mortality and stunting.

The Toll on Health and the Economy

The crisis also worsens in the future. UNICEF report published in 2029 projects that Afghanistan could lose 20,000 women teachers and 5,400 female health workers by 2030, and that current restrictions cost an estimated $84 million in lost economic output annually. The removal of women from the teaching and healthcare roles leads to fewer girls in schools and reduced care for women and children, further disrupting the entire society.

Women's Voices: Personal Stories of Loss and Resistance

The Jerusalem Post spoke to several Afghan women who have fled or remain in exile, each sharing personal accounts of the Taliban's impact on their lives.

Marwa Ali, a social activist and former Afghan national athlete living in Paris, told The Media Point that the Taliban's return to power in 2021 abruptly reversed gains in women's rights, stripping women of autonomy, restricting movement, and banning them from sports. Tahmina Usmani, an Afghan journalist and former TOLOnews presenter who became the first female news presenter, detailed the problems that arose once the Taliban assumed control and why she fled her homeland.

Tahmina Safi, a former judge of Afghanistan's Supreme Court and co-founder of the Afghanistan Impact Network, said that five years after the takeover, restrictions have become a deeply entrenched system of gender-based exclusion affecting half of Afghanistan's population. Fariba Akbari, an Afghan women's rights activist in exile, described the situation as a 'brutal cycle' and a 'full-scale humanitarian crisis.'

Paul Farley, a US-based former Senior Intelligence Service officer, described the trajectory of women's rights as firmly negative, with little indication of significant improvement, noting that power rests with Kandahar's hardline clerical leadership.

One particularly tragic case: In late July 2026, a 16-year-old girl named Fariba reportedly committed suicide, leaving a note saying 'too hard to be a girl in Afghanistan.' The girl, from Daikundi Province, had been denied education.

UN Experts Urge No Normalization

In a statement marking the fifth anniversary, UN human rights experts urged governments to refrain from normalizing relations with the Taliban until there is demonstrated, measurable, independently verified progress on human rights, particularly the rights of women and girls. The statement was endorsed by more than two dozen UN-appointed independent experts, including Afghanistan's Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett and others specializing in women's rights, education, food, torture, freedom of expression, and forced disappearances.

Perspectives

  • Taliban spokespersons: They have not been directly quoted in the articles provided, but the Jerusalem Post reports that the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid held a news conference, and that the Taliban has rejected international calls to ease restrictions.
  • Afghan women and girls: Provide personal testimonies of loss, restrictions, and the daily struggle to access education or escape the country.
  • UN and human rights experts: Urge governments not to normalize the Taliban and to demand measurable progress on women's rights.
  • UNICEF: Calls for lifting the ban on education and continues to support community-based education and vocational training, but insists the ban must end.
  • Independent analysts: Paul Farley, a former intelligence officer, states the trajectory for women's rights remains firmly negative under the current Taliban leadership.