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Gender Apartheid: Two years of Taliban rule and its impact on women
Afghanistan's Taliban government marked the second anniversary of its return to power, while the International community denounced the ever-tightening restrictions on women's rights in the country. Banned from attending schools, universities, and public spaces, and restricting their participation in the workforce, Afghan women have borne the maximum brunt for two years under Taliban rule. The UN is now calling it a 'Gender Apartheid'
Image: Aamir Qureshi / AFP
Expressing their fear and despair over the loss of rights, an Afghan national takes part in a women’s demonstration against the Taliban government in Islamabad on August 15, 2023, on the occasion of the second anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. In 2021, only one month after returning to power for the first time in 20 years, the Taliban authorities banned girls from attending secondary school, before closing university doors to them in December 2022. Women were ordered to fully cover up in public, ideally in a burqa, and then were also heavily restricted in the workforce.
Image: Wakil Kohsar / AFP
Armed Taliban parade in a vehicle convoy near the US embassy in Kabul on August 15, 2023, during the second-anniversary celebrations of their takeover. A statement from the Afghan authorities hailed their victory that "paved the way for the establishment of the Islamic system in Afghanistan. The conquest of Kabul proved once again that no one can control the proud nation of Afghanistan" 
Image: Sayed Hassib / Reuters
Sofia, an Afghan student, speaks English during an online class, at her house in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 18, 2023. Countless girls and women have already had to leave the country to continue their education after the Taliban government returned to power and banned more than 1.1 million girls and women from schools and universities.
Image: Wakil Kohsar / AFP
Members of Afghanistan's Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice arrive to attend a press conference in Kabul on August 14, 2023. Despite reassurances by the Taliban authorities that any restrictions imposed on women—particularly in terms of access to education—would be temporary, the facts on the ground have demonstrated a systematic segregation, marginalisation, and persecution of women
Wakil KOHSAR / AFP
Image: Ali Khara / Reuters
Afghan beauticians shutter a beauty salon permanently in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 24, 2023. As part of a Taliban administration announcement early this month that the women-only spaces were forbidden under Shariah law, beauty salons that employed over 60,000 women have shut down.
Image: Ali Khara / Reuters
An Afghan woman walks among Taliban soldiers at a checkpoint in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 6, 2023. Under watchful eyes, women are being erased from public life, effectively imprisoned within their own society by recent decrees that ban women from public parks and gyms, and limit the number of days they can go shopping (and then too only with a male relative).
Image: Shafiullah Kakar / AFP
Afghan bodybuilders compete in a provincial bodybuilding competition in Jalalabad on July 20, 2023. Menfolk who oppose the Taliban’s policies on women are afraid to speak up due to Taliban’s criminalisation of the support for women. Male allies have been threatened, jailed, and even tortured for the mere act of expressing support for their female compatriots.
Image: Elise Blanchard / WaPo via Getty Images
A young woman attends a counselling session at the mental health department of Herat Hospital in western Afghanistan on May 31, 2023. According to a UN report, 8% of women surveyed knew a woman who had attempted suicide.
Image: Mohsen Karmi / AFP
An Afghan couple follow rituals as they get married in a mass wedding ceremony in Herat on July 6, 2023. Since girls are allowed to do nothing, restricting them to their homes, families resort to marrying the girls off forcefully, regardless of their consent. 
Image: Sanaullah SEIAM / AFP
Afghan burqa-clad women receive food from foreign aid in Kandahar on August 10, 2023. An economic and humanitarian crisis was set in motion since the Taliban takeover, as international aid dried up and sanctions were imposed. The international community continues to grapple with ways to engage with the Taliban authorities, the restrictions on women's rights have become a key obstacle in the negotiations over aid and recognition.
Image: Ali Khara / Reuters
Children of Taliban members, dressed in military uniforms, hold toy weapons as they walk on a snow-covered street in Kabul, Afghanistan, January 29, 2023. During their first rule of Afghanistan from 1996–2001, the Taliban were notorious internationally for their misogyny and violence against women. Taliban’s return has reinstated their reputation.
