 | Parts of this article (those related to events after the Taliban return to power) need to be updated. (August 2020) |
Group of women in Kabul, 2006 Postage stamp of Afghanistan from 1963, depicting an Afghan woman in folk clothing | |
| General Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Maternal mortality (per 100,000) | 152 (2020) |
| Women in parliament | 0.0% (2022) |
| Women over 25 with secondary education | 30% (2018) |
| Women in labour force | 21.62% (2020)[1] |
| Gender Inequality Index[2] | |
| Value | 0.678 (2021) |
| Rank | 167th out of 191 |
| Global Gender Gap Index[3] | |
| Value | 0.435 (2022) |
| Rank | 146th out of 146 |
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.[4] Since the US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban gradually imposed 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 females from studying beyond the sixth grade.[5] 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.[6][7][8][9] In extreme cases, women have reportedly been subjected to gang-rape and torture in Taliban prisons.[10][11]
Women face harsh punishments such as flogging and stoning to death for adultery. There is an increase in the number of suicides among women and sexual crimes targeted at women are at peak after the takeover of Taliban in 2021. Many women have left the country to places such as Iran to pursue education and employment.[12][13]
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.[14]
- ^ "Labour force participation rate, female".
- ^ "Human Development Report 2021/2022" (PDF). HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORTS. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
- ^ "Global Gender Gap Report 2022" (PDF). World Economic Forum. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
- ^ Faiez, Rahim (9 March 2023). "UN: Afghanistan is world's most repressive country for women". Associated Press. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
- ^ "Afghanistan: Taliban Tighten Grip 3 Years into Rule". Human Rights Watch. 11 August 2024. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
- ^ "Afghanistan: Taliban ban women from universities amid condemnation". BBC News. 21 December 2022. Archived from the original on 21 December 2022. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ "Taliban prohibit university educations for Afghan women in latest revocation of rights". France 24. 20 December 2022. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ Faulkner, Charlie (22 December 2022). "Taliban ban all Afghan women from university and girls from primary school". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
- ^ Yong, Nicholas (4 July 2023). "Taliban order Afghanistan's hair and beauty salons to shut". BBC. Singapore. Archived from the original on 4 July 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
- ^ "The Observer view on Afghanistan: Britain and the US are complicit in the Taliban's oppression of women". The Guardian. 8 September 2024. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
- ^ "Video appears to show gang-rape of Afghan woman in a Taliban jail". The Guardian. 3 July 2024. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
- ^ "'They can stone us and flog us – I will keep using makeup': why women risk everything in Afghanistan's secret salons". The Guardian. 1 August 2024. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
- ^ Townsend, Mark (15 August 2024). "Hundreds of cases of femicide recorded in Afghanistan since Taliban takeover are 'tip of the iceberg'". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
- ^ "Global: Gender apartheid must be recognized as a crime under international law". amnesty.org. 17 June 2024. Retrieved 26 August 2024.