Women's rights in Afghanistan are severely restricted by the Taliban. In 2023, the United Nations termed Afghanistan as the world's most repressive country for women. Since the US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban gradually imposed many restrictions on women's freedom of movement, education, and employment. Women are banned from studying in secondary schools and universities, making Afghanistan the only country to prohibit women from studying beyond the age of twelve. Women are not allowed in parks, gyms, or beauty salons. They are forbidden from going outside for a walk or exercise, from speaking or showing any part of their face or body outside the home, or even from singing or reading from within their own homes if they could be heard by strangers outside. In extreme cases, women have reportedly been subjected to rape and torture in Taliban prisons.
Women face harsh punishments such as flogging and stoning to death for adultery. There has been an increase in female suicides and sexual crimes targeted at women following the takeover of the Taliban in 2021. Many women have left the country to places such as Iran to pursue education and employment. The discrimination against women and systematic segregation in Afghanistan under the Taliban has been termed as "gender apartheid" by organizations such as the UN and Amnesty International.
In 2026, human rights lawyer Belquis Ahmadi wrote: Afghanistan has become the world's most devastating example of the systematic persecution of women and girls. No other country has imposed such extensive restrictions on half of its population solely on the basis of gender.
Overview
Afghanistan is on the crossroads of South Asia and Central Asia and has a population of roughly 50.9 million. Of these, 25.8 million are male and 25.1 million are female. About 22% of the Afghan people are urbanite and the remaining 78% live in rural areas. As part of local culture, most women are married soon after completing high school. Many live as housewives for the remainder of their lives. +List of the current restrictions on women in Afghanistan since Taliban takeover in August 2021:Restrictions on women in Afghanistan under Taliban Declaration date Co-education is banned. Secondary schools are restricted only to boys. Females are prohibited to attend secondary schools. Female university students are ordered to attend gender-segregated classes and wear specific abayas.September 2021 The Ministry of Women's Affairs abolished. Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Afghanistan) was created. The Ministry enforces decrees related to Afghan women issued by the Taliban Supreme Leader. It oversees implementation of strict laws that largely remove women from public life and restrict their personal freedoms. The ministry took over the physical building that previously housed the government's Women's Affairs Ministry, effectively erasing formal institutional representation for women's rights Ministry has following powers to enforce its code of conduct on women:- Taliban's Morality Police Patrols:Agents of Taliban Morality patrol the streets to monitor women's clothing, behavior, and movement. Women caught violating these dress codes or rules face detention, public beatings, or imprisonment by Taliban ministry and morality police officials. Morality Police ensure women must cover their bodies completely from head to toe, including their faces and bare skin, typically wearing a burqa or thick veil. Morality Police of Taliban ensure Women are prohibited from speaking, singing, or raising their voices in public spaces, meaning they cannot speak or bargain audibly with shopkeepers. Morality Police of Taliban ensure that women do not use public transportation unless accompanied by a close male relative (mahram). Morality have hundred of checkpoints across highways in Afghanistan to ensure implementation of this decree. This does not apply to female foreign travellers travelling Afghanistan but Taliban officials intense scrutiny and harassment by Taliban guards on checkpoints who may demand a male chaperone or question their movement. Women are barred from appearing in television dramas, soap operas, and entertainment showsNovember 2021 Women are banned from traveling more than 72 kilometers (45 miles) unless accompanied by a close male relative (mahram). Drivers are instructed not to pick up un-veiled female passengers26 December 2021 Girls' secondary schools (ages over 12) are ordered to shut down just hours after reopening nationwide.March 23, 2022 Strict gender segregation is enforced in public parks and amusement spaces.March, 2022 A decree is issued by Taliban Supreme Leader Mulla Hibatullah Akhunzada, making compulsory for women to cover their faces in public or when women leave their homes. In the same decree, women are "strongly" told to only leave their homes when "necessary".May 7, 2022 Female television presenters are ordered to cover their faces while on air.May 19, 2022 Women are completely prohibited from entering public parks, gardens, and gyms and public baths (hammams).November 10, 2022 The Taliban Ministry of Higher Education suspends women from attending universities. Women are completely banned from attending universities or pursuing higher education.December 20, 2022 National and international NGOs are ordered by the Afghan Taliban to suspend all female employees, severely hampering humanitarian aid delivery.December 24, 2022 The Taliban ban Afghan women from working for the United Nations and other international organizations.April 4, 2023 All beauty salons and hair parlors across the country are ordered to shut down, destroying a major source of female income and community gathering. July 24, 2023 The Taliban formalizes a 114-page "Law of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice". This decree dictates that a woman's voice is intimate and must not be heard in public, meaning women are legally barred from singing, reciting, or speaking aloud outside the home. The same decree bans women from looking directly at men who are not blood relativesAugust, 2024 A directive bans women from attending medical institutes, cutting off the last remaining loophole for women to access higher vocational educationDecember, 2024 Regulations are introduced requiring residential homes to block or paint over any windows looking out onto areas where women may be present (like courtyards or kitchens) to prevent them from being seen from the street.2025 Taliban forces begin actively blocking Afghan women—including UN staff, contractors, and visitors—from entering UN premises nationwide7 September 2025 Women civil servants who had been paid a baseline stipend of 5,000 Afghani per month to stay home since 2021 have their employment formally terminated and salaries halted completely.January 2026 Taliban authorities passed a new law which, among other permissible actions, allowed men to beat their wives as long as they didn't break bones or leave visible, permanent wounds. March 2026 The Taliban enacts Decree No. 12 (Criminal Procedure Code) and Decree No. 18 (Code on Judicial Separation of Spouses), this is comprehensive overhauls to regional family codes formalize total legal custody of women to their husbands.March 2026 A woman commits a legal offense if she leaves the home to visit relatives without her husband's prior permission It makes divorce almost impossible for womenMarch 2026 The Taliban decree says that a girl's silence at puberty can be deemed as her legal consent to arranged or child marriage.May 2026
History Emirate of Afghanistan
During the Durrani Empire (1747–1823) and the early Barakzai dynasty Afghan women customarily lived subjected in a state of purdah and gender segregation imposed by patriarchal customs. While this was the case in all Afghanistan, the customs differed somewhat between regions and ethnic groups. Nomadic women, for example, did not have to hide their faces and even showed some of their hair.
Women did not play any public role in society, but some women, such as Nazo Tokhi and Ayesha Durrani, became noted as poets and writers, which were art forms possible for women to perform while living in the seclusion of the harem.Ismati, Masoma. (1987), The position and role of Afghan women in Afghan society, from the late 18th to the 19th century; Kabul The rulers of Afghanistan customarily had a harem of four official wives as well as a large number of unofficial wives for the sake of tribal marriage diplomacy, in addition to enslaved harem women known as kaniz ("slave girl"The History Of Afghanistan Fayż Muḥammad Kātib Hazārah's Sirāj Al Tawārīkh By R. D. Mcchesney, M. M. Khorrami (trans., ann.)) and surati or surriyat ("mistress"), guarded by the ghulam bacha (eunuchs).Emadi, Hafizullah, Repression, resistance, and women in Afghanistan, Praeger, Westport, Conn., 2002. Some women had influence over the affairs of state from inside the royal harem, notably Zarghona Anaa, Mirmon Ayesha and Babo Jan.Ismati, Masoma. (1987), The position and role of Afghan women ·in Afghan society, from the late 18th to the 19th century; Kabul
Some Afghan rulers have attempted to increase women's freedom. For the most part, these attempts were unsuccessful. However, there were a few leaders who were able to make some significant, if temporary, changes.
Abdur Rahman Khan (1880 – 1901) Some limited reforms were made by Abdur Rahman Khan (r. 1880–1901), who banned some forms of oppression originating from tribal customs rather than Islam, among them the custom of forcing widows to marry their brothers-in-law, and enforced some rights which Islam did approve of but local tribal customs did not, such as the right of widows to inherit.Khan, Sarfraz, and Samina, Politics of Policy and Legislation Affecting Women in Afghanistan: One Step Forward Two Steps Back (2013). Central Asia, No.73. Winter 2013, pp. 1-24, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2765247
His wife, Bono Jan was the first Afghan queen to appear publicly without a veil in Western attire. She rode horses as well as trained her maidservants in military exercises. With a keen interest in politics, she participated in a number of delicate diplomatic missions to mediate between opposing factions.
Kingdom of Afghanistan
Amanullah Khan (1919–1929) The first person to have made significant reform was King Amanullah, who ruled from 1919 to 1929 and made some of the more noteworthy changes in an attempt to unify as well as modernize the country. He promoted freedom for women in the public sphere in order to lessen the control that patriarchal families exerted over women. King Amanullah stressed the importance of female education. Along with encouraging families to send their daughters to school, he promoted the unveiling of women and persuaded them to adopt a more western style of dress. In 1921, he created a law that abolished forced marriage, child marriage, and bride price, and put restrictions on polygamy, a common practice among households in the Afghanistan region.