Alison Davidian, UN Women Country Representative in Afghanistan, briefed journalists in New York on their latest report addressing the plight of women and girls since the de facto authorities returned to power in August 2021.
She described this period as “three years’ worth of countless decrees, directives and statements targeting women and girls, stripping them of their fundamental rights and eviscerating their autonomy”.
The horrors have not stopped
Taliban edicts have denied girls from getting an education beyond the sixth grade and banned women from working for non-governmental organization (NGOs).
“Three years ago, the world was watching a takeover that was livestreaming horror after horror,” she said, speaking via videoconference from the Afghan capital, Kabul.
“And three years later, while the world’s attention may have turned elsewhere, the horrors have not stopped for Afghan women and girls, but nor has their conviction to stand against the oppression.”
Removal of women from society
The UN Women report details trends based on consultations with thousands of women across Afghanistan – from provincial capitals to rural areas – since the Taliban’s return.
“The first most striking trend is the erasure of Afghan women from public life,” said Ms. Davidian.
“To date, no woman in Afghanistan is in a leadership position anywhere that has influence politically, either at national or provincial levels. When women are engaged in the Taliban’s structures, their roles are largely to monitor compliance of other women with their discriminatory decrees.”
Ignoring Afghan women even within the family
This political erasure is also mirrored at the social level as a staggering 98 per cent of women surveyed felt they had limited or zero influence over decisions made in their communities.
Furthermore, the percentage of women who feel they have a say in decisions made in their own homes has dropped by nearly 60 per cent over the past year.
“To give some context, three years ago an Afghan women could technically decide to run for president. Now, she may not even be able to decide when to go and buy groceries,” said Ms. Davidian.
“Now, I’m not saying that three years ago it was perfect. It was not perfect, but it wasn’t this.”
When asked about the findings, she responded: “I think when you take away women’s right to education and restrict their rights to work and public life, it affects all rights and affects women’s agency more generally.”
Mental health crisis
The UN Women data also revealed an escalating mental health crisis linked to the loss of rights. Sixty-eight per cent of women reported having “bad” or “very bad” mental health, and eight per cent said they knew at least one other woman or girl who had attempted suicide.
Ms. Davidian was adamant that the Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls will affect generations to come.
“Our analysis shows that by 2026, the impact of leaving 1.1 million girls out of school and 100,000 women out of university correlates to an increase in early childbearing by 45 per cent and an increase in maternal mortality by up to 50 per cent,” she said.
The world is silent
Overall, the agency’s report shows that “Afghan women want to represent themselves, but one meeting, one participation option, is not enough,” Ms. Davidian said.
“In every and any form of engagement, we need to be asking how do we meaningfully include Afghan women and how do we break the pattern of women’s exclusion?”
She also looked at the wider picture as “we are at a real inflection point” in the fight for women’s rights globally and not just in Afghanistan.
“The world is watching what happens to Afghan women and girls,” she said. “In some cases, it watches to condemn, but in others, it watches to emulate the Taliban’s systematic oppression.”
She insisted that the international community cannot leave Afghan women to fight alone because “if we do, we have no moral ground to fight for women’s rights anywhere else. Their fate determines the fate of women everywhere.”
UN News
Drastic erosion of women’s rights in Afghanistan continues