Women’s rights under the Taliban

The Taliban have broken multiple pledges to respect women’s rights since retaking power in Afghanistan in 2021

Aug 15, 2021: Taliban returns to power in Kabul following withdrawal of U.S. troops

Aug 17: Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid pledges respect for women’s rights. They will be allowed to work, study and be active in society

Sep 7: Taliban appoints “caretaker government,” excluding women from cabinet posts

Sep 18: Taliban orders reopening of boys’ secondary schools

Mar 21, 2022: Education Ministry announces that girls of secondary-school age will be permitted to go back to class

Mar 23: Taliban reverses decision – girls barred again

May 7: Supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada (right) orders women to cover themselves,
fully, including their faces

Aug 13: Taliban fighters beat women protesters who chant “bread, work and freedom” outside Education Ministry

Sep 30: Suicide bomber kills 46 girls and young women at centre packed with students sitting university admissions exams

Oct 13: Thousands of Afghan girls and women sit university entrance exams

Nov 10: Taliban’s Ministry of Virtue and Vice bans women from entering parks, using gyms or public baths in capital

Dec 8: Taliban flogs 18 men and nine women for alleged theft and adultery

Dec 20: Minister for Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadeem (above) orders nationwide ban on university education for females

Council on Foreign Relations, LSE
Pictures: Getty Images, Taliban
© GRAPHIC NEWS