Afghanistan International: A shortage of medical staff, particularly female specialists, has become a serious problem in southern Afghanistan. Afghanistan International found no female specialists in Helmand, Zabul or Uruzgan, and only three in Kandahar. Health sources and residents of southern provinces say the number of female specialist doctors has steadily declined during the five years
The Guardian (UK): The Taliban did not just ban women from schools, impose the burqa and outlaw smartphones. The Taliban built a system that enslaves nearly half the country’s population, or according to outdated statistics: 21,701,532 women and girls. Click here to read more (external link).
Amu: Human Rights Watch said Afghanistan has descended into one of the world’s gravest human rights crises during nearly five years of Taliban rule, citing systematic repression of women and girls, attacks on media freedom, arbitrary detentions and a worsening humanitarian emergency. The organization said women and girls have borne the brunt of the Taliban’s
Afghanistan International: The Taliban on Friday, July 10, again detained several women on Herat for allegedly failing to comply with the group’s dress code. Sources said two Taliban morality police patrol vehicles took several women to an undisclosed location. Sources told Afghanistan International that at least two patrol vehicles belonging to the Taliban’s Ministry for
By Farangis Najibullah and Firuza Azizi Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty June 24, 2026 Fear has gripped Afghanistan’s third city as the Taliban government violently enforces a stricter dress code for women. Members of the Taliban’s notorious morality police have arrested and even publicly beaten women in the western city of Herat accused of violating a
The Guardian (UK): It explicitly allows children to be given in marriage at any age. It also forces women whose husbands are missing to wait until they are presumed dead before they can be separated. Part of the code that addresses abusive or neglectful husbands allows a wife to petition the court if her husband
8am: As summer begins, several women are voicing complaints about being barred from recreational areas under Taliban rule. They say the restrictions imposed by the group have closed off nearly all leisure spaces to women, depriving families of anywhere to relax and spend their free time. Meanwhile, several women’s rights activists say the Taliban have
NYT: With secondary education and most jobs out of reach, thousands of Afghan women have turned to entrepreneurship as the only path to make money and maintain a social life. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan International: The Taliban’s security chief for the Herat police command, Najibullah Ali, has announced that the group will continue detaining women in the province over alleged violations of its dress code. Ali also confirmed that the Taliban have so far detained more than 19 women for failing to comply with the group’s interpretation of
8am: Following calls to action by citizens inside and outside the country to protest the detention of women in Herat and the crackdown on their demonstrations, the Taliban have stepped up the interrogation, detention, and imprisonment of social activists and social media users across the province. After the public protests in the Jibrail district of