Afghan Women Face Near Total Social, Economic And Political Exclusion
But recently, the level of participation has reached a new low – zero.
Zero women in national or local decision-making bodies.
Zero girls projected to be in secondary education following a December 2024 ban.
These numbers are part of the index released Tuesday by gender equality agency UN Women which is the most comprehensive study on gender inequality in Afghanistan since the Taliban resumed de facto control in 2021.
It paints a sobering picture of the state of gender equality in Afghanistan.
'Since [2021], we have witnessed a deliberate and unprecedented assault on the rights, dignity and very existence of Afghan women and girls. And yet, despite near-total restrictions on their lives, Afghan women persevere,' said Sofia Calltorp, UN Women chief of humanitarian action, at a briefing in Geneva.
Second-widest gender gap in the world
The report released by UN Women noted that while the Taliban regime has presided over 'unparalleled' gender inequality, disparities existed long before 2021.
'The issue of gender inequality in Afghanistan didn't start with the Taliban. Their institutionalised discrimination is layered on top of deep-rooted barriers that also hold women back,' Ms. Calltorp said.
According to the index, Afghanistan currently has the second-worst gender gap in the world, with a 76 per cent disparity between women's and men's achievements in health, education, financial inclusion and decision-making.
Afghan women are currently realizing only 17 per cent of their potential, and recent policies by the de facto government — including the December 2024 ban on women in secondary education and the increasingly stringent restrictions on women's movement — will perpetuate and perhaps worsen this under-realized potential.
Systematic exclusion and social effects
This sort of systematic exclusion of women from society at all levels not only impedes progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and gender equality but also exacerbates poverty and instability more broadly, making it harder for the economy to diversify labour sources.
'Afghanistan's greatest resource is its women and girls. Their potential continues to be untapped,' said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous.
Right now, only 24 per cent of women are part of the labour force, compared to 89 per cent of men. Continued protracted economic strife has led to the number of women in the workforce increasing.
'Overlapping economic, political, and humanitarian crises — all with women's rights at their core — have pushed many households to the brink. In response – often out of sheer necessity — more women are entering the workforce,' Ms. Calltorp said.
Nevertheless, women are still predominantly working in lower-paid and less secure positions and are overwhelmingly responsible for all unpaid domestic work.
Ms. Calltorp noted that despite the 'devastating' daily constraints that Afghan women face, they continue to advocate for themselves and their rights.
'[Afghan women] continue to find ways to run businesses and advocate for their rights – and the rights of all Afghans…Their courage and resilience spans generations,' Ms. Calltorp said.
Stark choices
Alongside a deteriorating gender equality landscape, the aid outlook in Afghanistan is increasingly bleak with only 18 per cent of the 2025 humanitarian response plan for Afghanistan funded.
This is having tangible impacts on the ground, leading UN agencies and partners to call for action and funds.
'Time and time again in Afghanistan, we have seen how donor support can be the difference between life and death…We make an urgent appeal to donors to increase flexible, timely and predictable funding,' they said.
Women, girls and other vulnerable groups are particularly impacted by these funding shortages — 300 nutrition sites for malnourished mothers and children have shut and 216 gender-based violence points have suspended work impacting over one million women and girls.
'The choices we make now will reveal what we stand for as a global community. If the world tolerates the erasure of Afghan women and girls, it sends a message that the rights of women and girls everywhere are fragile and expendable,' Ms. Calltorp said.
'Afghan women and girls haven't given up, and we will not give up on them.'
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Afghanistan: UN Report Documents Human Rights Violations Of Forced Returnees
KABUL/GENEVA (24 July 2025) – A UN report published today documents the cases of individuals involuntarily returned to Afghanistan who have experienced serious human rights violations on the basis of their specific profiles. These violations have included torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and threats to personal security – at the hands of the de facto authorities. Since 2023, large numbers of Afghans have been involuntarily returned to the country, primarily by Pakistan and Iran. The report issued by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN Human Rights Office found that groups of people returning to the country who were at particular risk of reprisals and other human rights violations by the de facto authorities were women and girls, individuals affiliated with the former government and its security forces, media workers and civil society. It is based on interviews conducted in 2024 with 49 individuals involuntarily returned to Afghanistan. 'Nobody should be sent back to a country where they face risk of persecution on account of their identity or personal history,' said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk. 'In Afghanistan, this is even more pronounced for women and girls, who are subjected to a range of measures that amount to persecution on the basis of their gender alone.' Interviewees affiliated with the former government and its security forces revealed that they had been forced to go into hiding since returning due to fears of reprisals, despite the de facto authorities' publicly stated amnesty for all who had previously fought against them in the conflict. For women involuntarily returned to the country, the situation is particularly severe. One former TV reporter who left the country after the takeover in August 2021 due to earlier Taliban threats described how, after her involuntary return to Afghanistan, she and other women in similar situation found there that there were no job opportunities, no freedom of movement, and no access to education beyond grade six for women and girls. 'I can unequivocally state that I am effectively under house detention,' she said. A former government official described how, after his return in 2023, he was detained for two nights in a house where he was severely tortured, including beatings with sticks, cables and wood, waterboarding, and was subjected to a mock execution. His leg was broken as a result. Sending people back to a country where they are at risk of persecution, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, enforced disappearance or other irreparable harm, is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement and a serious breach of international law. The report urges States to ensure that individualised assessments are carried out before any return of persons to Afghanistan, and to refrain from returning any individuals at real risk of serious human rights violations to Afghanistan. States are also called on to increase the availability of safe pathways for Afghans at risk to leave the country and to remain safely in their territories without fear of detention for purposes of expulsion. Many hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been involuntarily returned from Pakistan and Iran, placing enormous pressure on the limited resources available to the de facto authorities to address their needs more generally. The report also recommends that States increase financial support to ensure that sustainable reintegration is possible. 'While the de facto authorities have responded in a coordinated manner to the significant influx of returnees to Afghanistan in recent years, more needs to be done to ensure that all returnees are included in society and have their human rights upheld,' said Roza Otunbayeva, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA. 'The participation of all Afghans in the social, political and economic life of the country is critical to the development and prosperity of the nation. I urge the de facto authorities to uphold their obligations under international law and their responsibilities to the Afghan people.'
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25-07-2025
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Remove Systemic Blockers To Enable Access For Women To Economic And Labour Markets
Unless we remove systemic discrimination, disadvantages and patriarchal barriers, how would we ensure that women and gender diverse peoples in all their diversities are equitably and justly able to access economic markets and labour markets? Economic justice is critical cog-in-the-wheel for development justice. At the recently concluded intergovernmental meet on financing for development, the outcome document mentions about the importance of "access of women to economic markets, labour markets and the importance of women for the potential benefit that they can bring to the economy, but it does not address the systemic discrimination and disadvantages that women and girls face when trying to access the labour markets and economic markets. These goals cannot be realised unless the principles of decent work and safeguards for fundamental human rights at workplaces of girls, women and gender diverse peoples are not assured," said Zainab Shumail of Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD). "The outcome document does mention to increasing investment in the care economy and equitably redistribute the disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work done by women, the reference itself does not meet the most progressive existing standards in terms of language on care which the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO) has set out. For example, the outcome document calls on governments to 'recognise, value and equitably redistribute' whereas the ILO calls to 'recognise, redistribute, reduce reward and represent unpaid care and domestic work'. This shows a missed opportunity for governments to advance normative frameworks and commitments to care economy within the text of outcome document," said Swetha Sridhar, Senior Global Policy Research Officer at Fos Feminista. Let us not forget that the linkage between gender equality, human rights and SDGs is especially critical in the context of achieving SDGs in the next 5 years. We need gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice, and bodily autonomy to be reflected in conversations on development and development financing urgently. And as Swetha Sridhar pointed out, without major reforms and restructuring of the international financial architecture, the implementation of the outcome document of fourth financing for development meet, will continue to advance the current problematic financial norms, while economic, gender, and reproductive justice will remain unattainable for women, girls, and gender diverse individuals. Unless we go for structural reforms, stop privatisation of public services – so that public health, education and social support are fully funded – how will we deliver on SDGs where no one is left behind? Governments say yes to UHC but no mention of reproductive health and bodily autonomy? While the document commits to increasing investment in universal health coverage and inclusive, equitable, affordable, quality and resilient health systems, there is no mention of sexual and reproductive health and rights or how this idea of universal health coverage will be rolled out in the context of increased spending on militarisation, added Swetha Sridhar. Mabel Bianco, senior physician activist from Latin America and Founding President of FEIM re-echoed that "if we are not having sexual and reproductive health and rights recognised - including access to safe abortion- it is not possible to reach development." Thirty years ago, world leaders made a promise at the Fourth World Conference on Women for achieving equal rights, opportunities, power, and safety for women and girls everywhere. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action also enshrined that promise to achieve equal rights of ALL women and girls. And yet where are we today? The outcome document of fourth financing for development meet is a setback to these promises made decades ago - and also - fails to deliver on feminist agenda. Widening funding gap for SDGs Based on the current trend developing countries are falling short by an estimated USD 420 billion a year to achieve gender equality as envisioned in the Sustainable Development Goals. According to UN Women, this shortfall is rooted in chronic underfunding, ineffective tracking of spending and inequitable global financing rules that divert resources away from the world's poorest countries, where most low-income women live. Reducing gender inequalities and guaranteeing the human rights of women and groups suffering exclusion and discrimination requires a transformative fiscal policy, both nationally and globally. But the outcome document of financing for development meet this year failed on various fronts to address these global challenges. It falls short of ushering in an economic system rooted in care, justice, and equality, says Misun Woo, Regional Coordinator, APWLD. It is also silent on safeguards, corporate abuses and preventing gender-based violence in the workplace and only offers band-aid solutions that perpetuate the violence of capitalism. Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator of Asian People's Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), rued that the FfD4 outcome document was a 'done deal' as it had already been finalised at least two weeks before the meet began, and governments did not make any major decisions that changed the text that had been already negotiated even before the governments began the in-person meet. Lidy said that there was a lack of transparency throughout the whole negotiation process at this meet. Its outcome document was influenced and shaped by the Global North countries - the 'blockers' of any real progress. According to her, absence of accountability and restrictions of civil society participation were major impediments. With no civil society space at this intergovernmental meet, feminists and other civil society activists were forced to mobilise and stage historical actions inside the meeting venue. "Meeting outcomes failed to make any meaningful progress on establishing a global financing framework that was centred on human rights and upheld the principle of CBDR (Common But Differentiated Responsibilities). The outcome document failed to make meaningful progress on environmental harm caused by colonialism, patriarchy, slavery, and resource extraction from the Global South. Outcome document also failed to prioritise public financing for high quality essential services and move beyond an over reliance on private finance to fill in development financing gaps. It failed to address the equity for income distribution. And it failed to call for reparations for the economic and environmental harm caused by colonialism, patriarchy, slavery, and resource extraction from the global south. The outcome document did not take on ecological and climate breakdown as cross-cutting issues. It did not clearly acknowledge the need to phase out fossil fuels', said Lidy. Shereen Talaat, Founder and Director of Middle East and North Africa Feminist Movement for Economic, Development and Ecological Justice, lamented that gender equality financing dropped to 42% of official development assistance in 2022 and only 4% of it had gender as a primary objective and less than 1% reached feminist and women rights organisations. Meanwhile, conflict-related sexual violence is up by 50%, as women face war and displacements. Shereen reiterated that the outcome document of fourth financing for development does not matter for people, especially those from the Global South. It only matters for existing global economic and capitalist systems. These issues were discussed at a SHE & Rights (Sexual Health with Equity & Rights) session co-hosted by International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) 2025, Family Planning News Network (FPNN), Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR), Asia Pacific Media Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT Media) and CNS. There was a general consensus among the speakers that overall the outcome document of fourth financing for development meet lacks genuine ambition for systemic transformation. It is painfully clear that a gender and human rights approach to financing was not mainstreamed in the text and the idea of feminist values were completely missing. There is a long way ahead for feminist restructuring of the global financial architecture. Top down decision making has to be replaced with women, girls, and all gender diverse peoples becoming co-creators and co-leaders of a gender-just and rights-based economic future. The global financial architecture should be based on care, human rights, justice and reparations. It should replace the current colonial financial architecture that continues to use unsustainable and illegitimate debt as a tool of oppression, and undermines peace. Also, as the Political Declaration of the Feminist Forum organised ahead of the fourth financing for development meet had rightly said, no real financing justice can be reached without an urgent end to escalating wars, territorial invasions and genocides. Let us make frustration our energy We must heed Mabel Bianco's request to not be frustrated and think that we lost (at fourth financing for development meet): 'We lose when we stop fighting. Our challenge is to make the frustration our energy so that we can go on and continue fighting for gender equality and human rights. Most importantly we need to multiply manifold in order to fight at national level to ensure gender equality becomes a reality where no one is left behind." Shobha Shukla – CNS (Citizen News Service) (Shobha Shukla is a feminist, health and development justice advocate, and an award-winning founding Managing Editor and Executive Director of CNS (Citizen News Service). She was also the Lead Discussant for SDG-3 at United Nations High Level Political Forum (HLPF 2025). She is a former senior Physics faculty of prestigious Loreto Convent College; current President of Asia Pacific Regional Media Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT Media); Chairperson of Global AMR Media Alliance (GAMA received AMR One Health Emerging Leaders and Outstanding Talents Award 2024); and coordinator of SHE & Rights (Sexual Health with Equity & Rights). Follow her on Twitter/X @shobha1shukla or read her writings here
