Author: Sarah Hamidi

UN Report Details Deepening Crisis for Afghan Women and Warns Against Normalising Taliban Rule

Posted on by Sarah Hamidi

In a recent report, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan delivered his most urgent warning yet, telling the United Nations’ General Assembly that Afghanistan is facing “the most extreme and systematic assault on gender equality in the world today.” In his latest report, Richard Bennett cautioned governments against normalizing relations with the Taliban, stressing that the human rights crisis continues to worsen and that there are “few grounds for optimism.” 

Bennett’s findings confirm what Afghan women have been expressing since the Taliban’s return to power: nothing has improved. No restrictive edicts have been reversed. No space has reopened for women or girls. Instead, he described a country where corporal punishment is rising, former officials are being killed and disappearing, the media is suffocating under new constraints, and civil society operates under constant threat. The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate rapidly, amid major funding cuts that have forced aid organizations to scale back essential services, even as needs grow. Women humanitarian workers, once central to reaching families and keeping women safe, are being barred from doing their jobs, removing one of the last lifelines for communities in crisis. 

According to the Special Rapporteur, this tightening system is beyond a collection of restrictive policies. It is rather an entrenched ideology that is reshaping Afghan society in ways the international community cannot afford to ignore. He warned that children in Afghanistan who are growing up without education or opportunity are being pushed toward conditions that could fuel deeper radicalization. The long-term consequences, he emphasized, will not be contained within Afghanistan’s borders. 

Despite the gravity of these reports, some governments continue to signal an openness to restoring ties with the Taliban. Bennett urged states to resist any form of normalization until there are demonstrated, measurable, and independently verified improvements for women and girls. He made clear that the Taliban have provided none so far. Afghan women are still banned from education, most employment, public spaces, and participation in public life. The UN News report accompanying the Special Rapporteur’s statement reaffirmed that “not a single edict” restricting women’s rights has been reversed.

The report also warned that cuts to humanitarian and civil society funding are stripping away the last protections for women already living under gender apartheid, undermining access to food, medical care, informal education, and even the ability to document violence. 

Yet Bennet stressed that accountability is still possible: the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for senior Taliban leaders, and a new independent mechanism is now preserving evidence of serious crimes. This momentum shows that Afghanistan is not a lost cause, but he cautioned that progress could quickly unravel if governments continue engaging with the Taliban without conditions; even informal legitimacy would erode the pressure needed to hold perpetrators accountable. 

For Afghan women, the stakes could not be any clearer. Every gesture towards normalization tells them their rights can be traded away for political convenience. Every meeting that sidelines the issue of gender apartheid reinforces the message that their lives are secondary to geopolitical interests. 

Yet Afghan women have never stopped resisting. They have not given up hope that they will one day return to their classes. Underground classrooms continue to operate and non-profits led by and for Afghans continue to use their voice and amplify those of Afghan women despite impossible constraints. Their determination continues even as the world debates how, or whether, to respond.

Bennett’s message is not only a warning but a reminder: turning away now would undermine the foundations of the international human rights system itself. Governments cannot claim to support women’s rights while willingly engaging with a regime that has institutionalized their erasure from public life. And Afghanistan’s surrounding nations and our international community cannot afford the long-term instability that will grow from children denied education, families denied safety, and women denied agency.

What Afghanistan needs now is resolve rather than resignation. Afghan women have carried the burden of this crisis for more than four years, and they have never stopped fighting for their future. The question is ultimately whether the international community is willing to meet their courage with the political will needed to ensure that their rights are no longer treated as expendable.

Taliban’s Latest Execution in Afghanistan Exposes Ongoing Abuses and Control Through Terror

Posted on by Sarah Hamidi

On October 16, 2025, Taliban publicly executed, Ismail, another Afghan man, convicted of murder, before thousands of spectators at a sports stadium in Badghis province, Afghanistan. In Herat province, a video from August this year captured Taliban fighters kicking the corpse of Mohammad Daud, accused of assassinating a commander, as crowds filmed the desecration, a gruesome spectacle reinforcing the regime’s reliance on terror to maintain control.

The Taliban identified the victim executed in Herat on August 22, 2025, as an armed opposition member accused of killing two fighters, including a district security commander, intensifying their campaign of fear. Yet hours later, Herat police issued a conflicting statement claiming the man was merely suspected of theft, further underscoring the arbitrariness of so-called Taliban “justice”. Human rights activists condemned the killing as an unlawful summary execution and a violation of human dignity.

These incidents are not isolated cases. In recent months, the Taliban revived the systematic use of corporal punishment, including floggings and executions, despite international outcry. Just days before the Herat execution, Taliban courts confirmed that 11 people, including women, were publicly lashed in Kabul, Faryab, Ghor, and Logar provinces on charges ranging from drug possession to “running away from home.” Punishments ranged from 20 to nearly 40 lashes, often followed by prison terms. UN monitors have documented nearly 200 public floggings in the past three months alone, alongside multiple executions carried out in front of large crowds.

These acts contradict the Taliban’s own promises. In 2021, the group announced a sweeping “general amnesty” for all former government employees and opposition fighters. Yet violations of that pledge occur daily. Extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, and corporal punishments have become routine. The amnesty has never been meaningfully implemented—it exists only as rhetoric for international audiences while Afghans live under constant threat.

The Taliban frame these punishments as enforcement of Sharia law, dismissing international condemnation as “foreign interference.” But their actions reveal something more sinister: the consolidation of absolute control through fear. By stripping defendants of legal representation and staging public displays of punishment, the Taliban turn justice into intimidation, erasing even the most basic principles of due process and further eroding the basic human rights of Afghans.

This use of violence as governance is not new. Last year, the Taliban executed four men in Herat accused of kidnapping and displayed their bodies in public squares. Earlier this year, four more were executed in Farah, Nimroz, and Badghis. These incidents are part of a broader system of repression where executions and floggings serve not only as punishment but also as tools of indoctrination and obedience.

The international community cannot afford to treat these abuses as internal matters or cultural or religious differences. Each execution, each flogging, each restriction on Afghan women and girls’ basic freedoms sets a dangerous precedent that authoritarian actors worldwide are watching. The Taliban’s actions amount not only to systematic repression but to gender apartheid and crimes against humanity.

According to various reports, Taliban’s Supreme Court has ordered over 170 executions since 2021, with 10 publicly carried out, including the October 16, 2025, killing in Badghis, intensifying fear and oppression across Afghanistan.

The Badghis and Herat executions are the latest reminder of what happens when brutality replaces governance and when silence substitutes for accountability. The international community has more than enough evidence. What is needed now is action – to hold Taliban leaders legally accountable, to recognize gender apartheid as the crime it is, and to end the impunity that allows these violations to continue.

Taliban Internet Blackouts Sever Afghan Women’s Education and Hope. They Demand Global Action.

Posted on by Sarah Hamidi

In late September, Afghanistan was plunged into a digital darkness. The Taliban government abruptly imposed a nationwide internet shutdown, cutting off millions of Afghans from communication, information, and, for many Afghan women, their final link to education and the outside world. While internet access has been partially restored in Afghanistan, reports from inside the country warn of further blackouts and more surveillance.

According to BBC News, the blackout, which lasted nearly 48 hours, disrupted flights, paralyzed businesses, and severed contact between families across provinces. But for Afghan women, the implications run far deeper than temporary disconnection. This was not just an interruption of service; as for the Taliban, it served as a method of expanding control.

For women barred from schools, jobs, and public life since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, the internet had become a rare refuge and one of the only means of continuing education through online classes, working remotely, and staying connected to a world that had otherwise closed its doors.

Fahima, a law and midwifery graduate, told BBC that online learning had been her “last hope” after women were banned from education beyond grade six. “I had hoped to finish my studies and find an online job,” she said. “Now even that dream has been destroyed.”

Students across the country shared similar stories. Shakiba, once enrolled in a midwifery program, said the blackout “made the world feel dark.” Teachers like Zabi, who ran online English courses, described how dozens of students were cut off mid-exam, and their months of preparation were rendered meaningless overnight.

When the internet returned days later, Afghans rejoiced in the streets. “It’s like Eid,” one Kabul resident said. Yet the celebration was unfortunately short-lived. Within a week, the Taliban quietly imposed new restrictions such as filtering social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X, and further limiting what Afghans can see and say online.

The Taliban’s blackout and subsequent filtering campaign mark a new dangerous phase in the regime’s control over Afghan society, which is the institutionalization of surveillance.

By placing all digital networks under state control and cutting Afghans off from the outside world, the Taliban are not only limiting dissent, but they are also ensuring that human rights violations go undocumented. Internet watchdog NetBlocks confirmed that the blackout was an “intentional restriction,” raising alarms that Afghanistan is moving further toward a model of authoritarian digital governance.

For women in particular, this control has devastating implications. Those who once relied on VPNs to access educational platforms or speak anonymously to journalists now fear that even private online activity could be monitored. In a country where the mere act of speaking can warrant punishment for women, digital surveillance has become a weapon of silence for the Taliban.

Despite the Taliban’s attempts to present the blackout as an “anti-vice” measure or a technical issue, it is clear that these moves serve a political purpose to consolidate power and erase any transparency. A regime that systematically cuts communication lines to conceal repression cannot have the privilege of being treated as a legitimate government.

The United States and the United Nations must not normalize or recognize a group that weaponizes isolation against its own citizens, particularly women and girls. Recognition would embolden the group to tighten their grip, knowing there will continue to be no consequence for censorship, for torture, or for the continued enforcement of gender apartheid.

As one Afghan student shared, “We want to study. We want to be educated. We want to be able to help people in our future. When I heard that the internet had been cut, the world felt dark to me.” 

That darkness is precisely what the Taliban want – to render Afghan women invisible, unheard, and disconnected from the world. The international community must ensure that the light does not go out on Afghan women.

A Landmark Step Toward Justice: UN Establishes Investigative Mechanism for Afghanistan

Posted on by Sarah Hamidi

The United Nations Human Rights Council has recently approved the creation of an independent investigative mechanism to document, consolidate, and preserve evidence of international crimes and human rights violations committed in Afghanistan. The resolution, which was adopted by consensus on October 6, 2025, marks a turning point in the global response to Afghanistan’s deepening crisis of impunity.

Led by the European Union, the resolution tasks the new mechanism with investigating grave abuses by all actors, including the Taliban, the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), former government and security forces, and international military actors. Its purpose is to ensure that evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and gender persecution is preserved for future prosecution.

This mechanism is the result of years of advocacy by Afghan civil society and human rights organizations, including the now-disbanded Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). Calls for such an initiative date back to the early 2000s, gaining new urgency after the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.

Over four decades of conflict have left millions of Afghans without justice. Successive regimes, the Soviet invasion of late 1970s, Mujahideen, Taliban, Republic, and now Taliban again, have presided over systematic abuses: arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, torture, and the persecution of women and minorities. The Taliban’s most recent rule has intensified these violations, creating what experts and Afghan women’s rights advocates describe as a system of gender apartheid that bleeds into every aspect of life for women.

Richard Bennett, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, called it “a vital tool.“

Unlike the International Criminal Court (ICC), this new investigative mechanism does not have prosecutorial powers. Instead, it will collect and preserve evidence to support future prosecutions at both national and international levels. The UN resolution explicitly calls for cooperation between the mechanism and the ICC, which has already issued arrest warrants for senior Taliban officials on charges of gender persecution as a crime against humanity.

The mechanism is also expected to investigate officials responsible for enforcing Taliban edicts, including bans on education, employment, and freedom of movement for women and girls, restrictions that constitute gender persecution under international law. 

Though it cannot deliver justice on its own, the new mechanism’s establishment signals that the world is no longer willing to ignore Afghanistan’s descent into total impunity. This mechanism is only the beginning and it ignites the path toward long-overdue justice for victims in Afghanistan.

For Afghan women, who have been systematically erased from public life since the Taliban’s takeover, this development offers a measure of recognition that has been long denied. It affirms that the crimes committed against them are not cultural or political issues, but violations of international law.

While the mechanism established cannot yet prosecute, it represents the beginning of an accountability process that could one day hold Taliban leaders responsible for their system of gender apartheid, which has deliberately erased women from education, employment, and public participation in Afghanistan.

The evidence it gathers will form the foundation of future trials, truth commissions, and reparations efforts. It is a powerful message that victims’ suffering will not remain invisible or ignored. 

Accountability will not come overnight. However, with this UN-mandated evidence-gathering mechanism, the international community has taken a long-awaited concrete step toward ensuring that Afghanistan’s crimes are not forgotten and that the Taliban’s war on women is recorded and ultimately punished under international law.

Four Years After the Fall, Afghan Women Are Still Fighting for Their Future

Posted on by Sarah Hamidi

August 15 marks four years since the world watched as the Taliban swept back into Kabul and reclaimed power in Afghanistan. The U.S. withdrawal marked the end of a twenty-year chapter, but for Afghan women and girls, it began an era of relentless rollbacks that has touched every part of their lives. What began as shock in August 2021 has hardened into a harsh reality, one where classrooms stay locked, jobs disappear overnight, and even speaking in public can carry consequences. Many are tired and scared of their new reality, yet they continue to hold on to the hope that this will not be their forever.

The bans have been sweeping: establishing over 150 edicts, shutting girls out of secondary school and universities, prohibiting women from working in most sectors, including NGOs that once relied on them to reach other women, and closing off public spaces from parks and gyms to libraries and beauty salons. The result is an intentional sense of invisibility that has left 78 percent of young Afghan women out of education, employment, or training, with little hope of reentering public life. The loss is also economic, stripping the country of the skills, labor, and leadership of half its population, and deepening a humanitarian crisis already amplified by sanctions, poverty, and climate shocks.

The cumulative effect is not just the denial of individual freedoms, it is the intentional construction of a society where women are absent from every sphere of public life. In 2020, women held over 25 percent of seats in Parliament; today, they hold none. Where once a woman could run for president, she can no longer speak in public without fear of punishment.

The toll on health is equally severe. Restrictions on education have cut off one of the last pipelines for female doctors and midwives. In regions where women cannot be treated by men, healthcare is increasingly out of reach. Humanitarian agencies warn that maternal mortality could rise by more than 50 percent by 2026. Early and forced marriage is on the rise, often used by families as a survival strategy. Inside homes, many women report having no voice in even the smallest decisions, underscoring how this exclusion reaches into the most private spaces.

Afghan Women Continue to Resist

Despite having their wings clipped, Afghan women continue to resist in ways the world rarely sees, running small businesses, gathering in secret to teach girls, risking arrest to deliver humanitarian aid. But their work is taking place under conditions that are harsher than at any point in the last two decades, while the international response remains inconsistent. As the world and our current U.S. administration begin diplomatic engagement with the Taliban, the priority has mainly been security or economic access over human rights, signaling that the world is willing to negotiate away the freedoms of Afghan women.

Allowing this erasure to stand sets a dangerous precedent beyond Afghanistan’s borders. If the rights of Afghan women and girls can be stripped away without consequence, it tells authoritarian actors everywhere that women’s rights are negotiable, which is a signal that the international community should confront rather than overlook. Supporting Afghan women means more than commemorating their struggle on anniversaries, it requires sustained funding for women-led organizations, advocating for the codification of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity, making gender equality a non-negotiable condition in any engagement with the Taliban, and integrating women’s rights into every humanitarian and development response.

“Silence is not an option”

Four years on, it is not enough to mourn what has been lost. We must also make space for Afghan women to tell their stories, share their struggles, and define their own futures. Their voices, those still inside the country and those in exile, are essential to shaping strategies that reflect their realities.

To “stand with” Afghan women cannot be a slogan reserved for anniversaries. It must mean amplifying their calls for action, ensuring they are present at every table where Afghanistan’s future is discussed, and refusing to let their erasure become the status quo.

Four years on, the danger is not only in what has been lost, but in how quickly the world can turn a blind eye. That is why it is essential to make space for Afghan women’s voices, to hear their stories, share their struggles, and follow their lead in shaping the fight for their future. To “stand with” Afghan women cannot be a slogan reserved for Instagram posts and anniversaries. It must mean amplifying their calls for action, ensuring they are present at every table where Afghanistan’s future is discussed, and refusing to let their erasure become the norm.

Silence is not an option as one Afghan woman told us recently, and solidarity cannot just be symbolic. Afghan women are still fighting, and we must fight alongside them, until their rights are restored, their freedoms are reclaimed, and their futures are their own.

Flogged into Silence: Taliban’s Public Brutality Targets Afghan Women and Society

Posted on by Sarah Hamidi

Today in Afghanistan, public squares and sports stadiums have become sites of fear, humiliation, and state-enforced cruelty. Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have revived one of their most archaic and oppressive tools of control– public flogging. Men and women alike are whipped in front of crowds, often accused of “moral crimes” or minor offenses, in a deliberate campaign to terrorize the population into submission.

According to data from Taliban court records and human rights organizations, more than 1,200 people have been publicly flogged since the group’s return to power, including at least 200 women. These numbers are likely inaccurate due to the number of unreported instances, coupled with the Taliban’s attempt at media censorship since returning to power. In just the past two months alone, 126 individuals were lashed across 19 provinces, with women accused of traveling without a male guardian, speaking to an unrelated man, or violating the Taliban’s rigid dress code.

These punishments are carried out with no semblance of due process. Taliban-controlled courts, which often happen to be makeshift and run by “vice and virtue” or morality police, coerce certain confessions and deny defendants any access to legal representation. The floggings are not isolated incidents but part of a systematic campaign of repression which is designed to instill fear, enforce obedience, and normalize the Taliban’s extremist ideology.

For Afghan women, the consequences are particularly devastating. Their daily existence is already defined by a system of gender apartheid: banned from secondary and higher education, stripped from most jobs, confined to their homes without a male guardian, and subjected to constant surveillance. Flogging adds a new layer of physical and psychological torture.

Deeba, a 38-year-old mother of seven, was flogged in front of a crowd for appearing in public without a male guardian. “They took me to a public place, covered my head, and whipped me in front of everyone,” she said. “When I was released, even my closest friends treated me differently. They called me names and spoke with disgust”.

Younger women face similar horror. Sahar, 22, was arrested for riding in a car with her cousin to a medical clinic. She was forced to falsely confess to an inappropriate relationship and received 30 lashes in front of her family and neighbors. “My little sister was there. She used to say I was her role model. I saw her crying in the crowd. That broke me,” she recalled.

The Taliban justify these acts under their harsh interpretation of Sharia law, but human rights experts and international organizations have repeatedly condemned the practice. Amnesty International calls public floggings “a cruel and shocking return to out-and-out hardline practices,” stressing that they violate the prohibition of torture under international law. Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, has warned that these punishments, often handed down by extrajudicial tribunals, tend to deepen political repression and erode any semblance of justice.

Public flogging is not only a tool of punishment, it is an instrument of indoctrination. By staging these acts in front of mass audiences, the Taliban aim to normalize cruelty and cement a society where fear replaces law. Some residents describe floggings becoming “routine” events, with crowds gathering to watch. This normalization of violence ensures that those who might otherwise resist remain silent and give no choice but to succumb to the Taliban’s regressive rules.

Few countries in the modern era rely so heavily on flogging as a cornerstone of governance. Its use alongside travel bans for women, mass detentions, and the erasure of women from public life illustrates the Taliban’s vision clearly, which is that of a society frozen in fear, stripped of dignity, and molded entirely to their oppressive ideology.

The international community has condemned these atrocities, but concrete measures still remain scarce. As the Taliban tighten their grip, Afghan women and men are being flogged into silence, with their bodies and lives turned into a warning for the rest of the country to obey restrictions that erode their basic human rights. Ending this cycle of terror will require not only condemnation and formal recognition of gender apartheid and the Taliban’s crimes, but sustained global action to hold the Taliban accountable for crimes that are not only deeply inhumane, but are a stain on humanity itself.

(All names are made up for interviewees’ safety)

Taliban Intensifies Gender Apartheid with Arrests and Abductions of Afghan Women

Posted on by Sarah Hamidi

In the latest crackdown on Afghan women’s basic freedoms, the Taliban have launched a sweeping campaign of arrests, abductions, and abuse across Kabul—targeting women and girls for their clothing, visibility, and defiance. Human rights defenders are calling the campaign a calculated assault on dignity and a defining feature of Afghanistan’s entrenched system of gender apartheid.

Between July 16 and 19, the Taliban’s “morality police” detained dozens, possibly over a hundred, women and girls in neighborhoods across the capital, according to firsthand testimonies and rights groups. Victims were dragged into unmarked vehicles, transferred to unknown locations, and subjected to physical abuse for alleged violations of hijab mandates—even when fully covered.

While the Taliban claim the arrests are based on “improper hijab,” women describe the campaign as an indiscriminate dragnet of fear. In areas like Dasht-e Barchi, suburbs of Kabul, and Shahr-e Naw, downtown Kabul, women reported loudspeaker warnings, roadblocks, and patrols at shopping centers. Some were detained for wearing slippers without socks. Others, despite wearing hijabs, were taken for not wearing masks.

The United Nations issued a statement on July 22 expressing concern over the arrests and warning that such policies isolate women and girls, erode public trust, and violate fundamental rights. But the statement offered no specifics on the number detained or where they were taken. And it stopped short of proposing any concrete action.

This silence is not new. For nearly four years, the international community has condemned Taliban repression while failing to deliver accountability. The latest arrests mark a grim intensification of policies the UN itself has recognized as “gender apartheid.” Yet the global response remains fragmented and rhetorical.

According to witnesses, Taliban agents in armored vehicles have targeted women near hospitals, restaurants, and buses. Some detainees have reportedly been transferred directly to intelligence directorates for months-long imprisonment. Others face abuse, humiliation, and release only upon paying bribes.

Julia Parsi, a former political prisoner and women’s rights protestor, called it a “major blow to women’s freedom and a sign that the Taliban fear their voices.” She warned: “The girls are being taken from every corner of Kabul. Their only crime is being visible.”

These tactics coincide with the regime’s ongoing enforcement of the “Virtue and Vice” law, which prohibits women from leaving home without a male guardian, speaking loudly, or showing their faces—even in emergencies. The law has essentially criminalized womanhood in public.

Yet, as the crackdown continues, so does resistance. Activists like Parisa Azada have launched campaigns such as “No to the Arrest of Girls,” publishing protest videos and speaking out despite the risk of retaliation. “Our silence, fear, and pain will not last forever,” Azada declared. “We will not be erased.”

But activists warn that without international consequences such as targeted sanctions, legal accountability, and refusal to recognize the Taliban regime, the oppression will only deepen. The arrests are not an isolated incident. They are part of a deliberate, escalating strategy of control.

While the arrests are taking place in Kabul and reported by some media outlets, in provinces across Afghanistan, acts of flogging, arbitrary detention, and even killings by the Taliban occur more frequently. These violations, carried out away from the media spotlight, are rarely documented or reported.

What is unfolding in Afghanistan is not simply a dress code crackdown; it is a full-scale attempt to eliminate women from public life. Through surveillance, threats, and abductions, the Taliban are tightening their grip on every aspect of a woman’s existence. The regime dictates how women appear, where they go, whether they speak, and now, whether they are even permitted to be seen. Their message is clear: a woman who moves freely, speaks publicly, or resists is a threat to be silenced.

And yet, as this campaign of erasure escalates, the world remains largely silent. Governments that once championed women’s rights now offer vague concern. International bodies issue warnings, but rarely impose consequences. Each arrest, each disappearance, is met not with coordinated action, but with quiet resignation. In doing so, the global community reinforces a disappointing truth—that the suffering of Afghan women is visible, acknowledged, and yet permitted to continue. Until this reality is confronted with urgency and resolve, Afghan women will continue to pay the price, not because the world does not know, but because it has chosen not to act.

U.S. Eliminates Afghan Relocation Office, Cutting Essential Lifeline for Afghans at Risk

Posted on by Sarah Hamidi

In a deeply troubling move, the U.S. Department of State has notified Congress that it will eliminate the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE), which is the only dedicated office tasked with supporting Afghans left behind following the Afghan evacuation in 2021. This change is set to take effect July 1, 2025, unless Congress intervenes. The Congressional notification document offers no replacement structure, no transition plan, and no clarity—only a quiet but impactful policy shift that threatens to cut the last remaining institutional link between the U.S. government and the Afghan people it once promised to protect.

The CARE office was established in the aftermath of the 2021 U.S. withdrawal, when the world watched as the Taliban regained power and tens of thousands of Afghan allies–journalists, civil servants, women’s rights defenders, students, and judges—were left scrambling for safety. CARE became the central coordinating body for third-country processing, flight coordination, family reunification, and case escalation. For many Afghans, CARE was the only official channel through which hope could be pursued. Its sudden and disorganized elimination signals not only the erasure of that hope, but an intentional step away from responsibility.

The CN document, which spans a sweeping overhaul of State Department operations, folds CARE’s functions into the broader Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. That bureau  is also notably being downsized with its regional offices consolidated, its Afghan Reconstruction Representative dissolved, and foreign assistance handling restructured. CARE staff have reportedly not been informed of what comes next, and the notification itself misnames the successor office, which underscores what advocates are calling a careless and dangerous transition. The implications are immediate and severe as without CARE, there is no longer a designated team coordinating evacuations, managing reunifications, or responding to urgent protection cases, and no clear channel for engagement with advocacy groups or Afghan diaspora organizations.

This isn’t happening in isolation. It comes as the Taliban continues to enforce one of the most extreme systems of gender apartheid in the world—erasing women from nearly every part of public life. Girls are banned from school past sixth grade. Women can’t work, travel, or access healthcare without a male guardian, and face punishment under a growing list of so-called “virtue” laws, with every week bringing a new edict. In this context, cutting CARE isn’t just a bureaucratic decision, it’s a clear abandonment of Afghan women, whose lives are in danger and whose paths to safety are disappearing.

The reorganization, framed by the State Department as a restructuring to align resources with “core national security objectives,” also eliminates the Office of Global Women’s Issues (S/GWI), which previously served as a central voice on gender equality within U.S. foreign policy. While the Department claims these responsibilities will be integrated elsewhere, the closure removes institutional visibility and direct leadership on women’s rights at a time when Afghan women are facing unprecedented levels of repression.

Despite promises to support Afghan allies, the Trump administration appears to be walking away from those commitments. The CARE closure coincides with a broader shift in immigration and humanitarian policy. The same reorganization reorients the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) to focus on “remigration”, a term that reflects an agenda of returning individuals to their countries of origin rather than securing permanent protection. At the same time, Executive Order 14161 is expected to soon restrict or ban new visa issuances for Afghans, further closing the doors of opportunity and safety.

For Afghans who remain in hiding, and for those stranded in third countries awaiting refuge and reunification with their families, these layered policies feel like a betrayal and signals the breakdown of one of the last remaining support systems. CARE was not only a logistical office, but a recognition that the United States had a continuing obligation to those it left behind. Its quiet elimination, without public acknowledgment or a detailed plan for continuity, represents a significant step away from that responsibility.

Afghan women continue to resist—through underground schools, digital organizing, and international advocacy—but resilience alone cannot secure safety. They need concrete pathways, legal protections, and governments willing to act with urgency. Eliminating CARE does not just make that harder, it makes it nearly impossible.

Afghan women witnessed the helicopters lift off from Kabul in 2021, and now they watch the lights go out in Washington, one office at a time. Advocates are calling for Congress to reverse the decision and restore a dedicated mechanism for Afghan relocation. Without it, they warn, the United States risks abandoning the very people it once vowed to protect at a moment when the consequences could not be more dire.

ICC Charges Taliban Leaders with Crimes Against Humanity Over Gender Apartheid

Posted on by Sarah Hamidi

In a landmark decision that reinforces international pressure on the Taliban, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has publicly disclosed arrest warrants for two of the regime’s top leaders, Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, on charges of gender persecution, a crime against humanity under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute.

This decision marks the first time that an international court has formally recognized the systemic persecution of women as crimes against humanity. According to the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber II, there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that the Taliban implemented a deliberate policy of persecution on the basis of gender, gender identity, and political opinion, targeting not only women and girls but also those perceived as their allies or as failing to conform to rigid ideological norms.

The arrest warrants, which had remained sealed since January to protect witnesses and victims, were made public on July 8 following growing international scrutiny. This revelation comes just one day after the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the Taliban’s worsening treatment of women and girls, highlighting the urgent global concern over Afghanistan’s deepening human rights crisis.

Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban have enacted a sweeping and brutal campaign to erase women from public life. Girls are banned from education beyond the sixth grade. Women are forbidden from working, restricted from travel without a male guardian, barred from healthcare access, and forced to veil in public. Even the sound of a woman’s voice in public has become a target of censorship.

The ICC determined that these actions constitute a “governmental policy” of persecution that severely deprived women and girls of their rights to education, privacy, free movement, expression, and thought. The court further acknowledged that persecution under the Rome Statute encompasses not just violent acts but also “systemic and institutionalized forms of harm,” including the imposition of discriminatory societal norms.

In a historic recognition, ICC Special Adviser on Gender and Discriminatory Crimes Lisa Davis stated this is “the first time in history that an international tribunal has confirmed LGBTQ people to be victims of crimes against humanity, namely gender persecution.”

For Afghan women who have long resisted the Taliban’s brutality despite grave risks this move by the ICC is a powerful, if symbolic, moment. While the likelihood of Akhundzada and Haqqani being brought into custody remains slim, as neither is known to travel outside Afghanistan, and the Taliban does not recognize the court’s legitimacy, the arrest warrants offer something many in the country have not felt in years: a sense of hope.

“These warrants show that the world is watching and that what the Taliban are doing is not just oppressive, but criminal,” said Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, calling it a “crucial step to hold accountable all those allegedly responsible for the gender-based deprivation of fundamental rights.”

Liz Evenson of Human Rights Watch added that the warrants could “provide victims and their families with an essential pathway to justice.”

While the practical enforcement of these arrest warrants remains uncertain, their significance is undeniable. The ICC’s action marks a long-overdue recognition of what Afghan women have endured, and what they have never stopped resisting. For decades, their oppression has been dismissed as culture, ignored as inconvenient, or treated as too complex to confront. This decision changes that.

The court has now affirmed a critical truth: what the Taliban calls governance is, in fact, a crime against humanity. Stripping women and girls of their rights to move, learn, speak, or exist freely is not a legitimate expression of religious or political authority—it is persecution.

This ruling is more than a legal procedure; it is a statement of global solidarity with Afghan women, girls, LGBTQ+ people, and all those resisting the Taliban’s rule. It affirms that their suffering matters, that their resistance is valid, and that their abusers can, and must, be held accountable. Justice will not come overnight. But this moment is a step toward it—a step that says the world sees, hears, and stands with those fighting for dignity and freedom in Afghanistan.

At UN Human Rights Council, Afghan Women Demand Action

Posted on by Sarah Hamidi

At the opening of the UN Human Rights Council’s 59th Session in Geneva, Afghan women took center stage, urging the international community to formally recognize Taliban rule as gender apartheid and take concrete steps toward justice.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, women and girls in Afghanistan have faced what many legal experts now call the most extreme and systematic gender-based oppression in the world. Now, a growing coalition of countries, legal scholars, and Afghan women themselves are pushing the world to name it for what it is—and act towards holding the Taliban accountable for their crimes.

Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, laid out a stark assessment: “The Taliban have institutionalized large-scale and systematic gender-based discrimination and violence… amounting to gender persecution and possibly other crimes against humanity.” In his remarks, Bennett called for the international community to “leave no stone unturned” in pursuing accountability—including supporting a new UN investigative mechanism and working toward formal recognition of gender apartheid as a crime under international law.

But it was the words of Afghan women that struck the most powerful chords on the global stage.

“My mother wasn’t allowed to study under the Taliban in the ‘90s. Now I’m banned too.”

Zahra*, a former teacher and survivor of child marriage, recounted the loss of her freedom and identity under Taliban rule—first in 2000, and now again in the present. “I lost my job. My daughter lost her school. Our home became a cage,” she said. Zahra described being publicly beaten by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue as her children watched in terror. “That day, it was not only the women who were punished. Our whole society’s dignity was crushed.”

Fatima Amiri, an education activist and survivor of a bombing at the Kaaj Educational Center in Kabul, spoke of resilience in the face of repression. “My mother wasn’t allowed to study under the Taliban in the ‘90s. Now I’m banned too,” she said. Having lost an eye and part of her hearing in the attack, Amiri described how she continues to learn in secret. “Don’t recognize the Taliban,” she urged. “If the UN cannot change their policies, at least don’t join them.”

The testimonies underscored how the Taliban’s crackdown extends beyond education. Women are barred from most employment, restricted from traveling alone, and denied access to justice. The Taliban’s Ministry of Justice has reversed divorce rulings, forcing women back into abusive marriages, and women no longer have access to licensed female lawyers, judges, or prosecutors. Courts routinely reject women’s legal complaints unless brought by a male relative.

Maryam Mitra, a poet and women’s rights activist, called on member states to match condemnation with action. “Afghan women are resisting at extraordinary personal risk. But resistance alone cannot dismantle a system built on erasure.” She demanded the creation of humanitarian corridors, urgent support for grassroots women-led organizations, and the inclusion of Afghan women in all diplomatic talks moving forward.

The Council meeting marked a turning point in global dialogue. Countries including France, Canada, Luxembourg, and Australia echoed Bennett’s framing and voiced support for accountability efforts—including referral of Taliban leadership to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and strengthening evidence-gathering initiatives.

UN Women and UNICEF also called for immediate action. Over 2.2 million Afghan girls are currently barred from school. UN Women warned that the justice system is being weaponized to entrench oppression, while UNICEF emphasized that the longer girls are kept out of education, the more permanent the damage to Afghan society will be.

“The Taliban are not simply restricting rights,” said Bennett. “They are engineering a system where women and girls cease to exist as public beings.”

Still, with much of the world focused on geopolitical bargaining and regional stability, Afghan women fear that their pleas could be ignored again. As Zahra concluded in her address: “We are not asking for privilege, only rights. If the world stays silent, the circle of fear and false choices will continue.”

The meeting left no doubt that Afghan women are watching—and waiting. Whether the world will answer their call remains to be seen.

Afghan Women Continue to Bear the Brunt of Trump Administration Aid Cuts

Posted on by Sarah Hamidi

The Trump administration’s sweeping rollback of U.S. foreign aid is sending shockwaves across global humanitarian sectors, however, the consequences are more devastating than ever in Afghanistan, where women already battling Taliban oppression are now being cut off from their last lifelines to education and survival.

Last week, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) abruptly scrapped a critical scholarship program that allowed 208 Afghan women to pursue college degrees, some virtually and others abroad, through the American University of Afghanistan. The Women’s Scholarship Endowment, a $50 million fund established in 2018, did not cost U.S. taxpayers a dime in new spending. The program ran on interest alone, providing hope in the face of Taliban-enforced educational bans that have denied nearly all Afghan girls access to high school and university since 2021.

“This scholarship meant everything to me,” said R.K., a student benefiting from the endowment. “It was like a light in the darkest days of my life. After the fall of Kabul, this program was my biggest hope for the future.”

Now, R.K. and her peers are in limbo. An April 5 email from a deputy USAID administrator informed them that the program was being ended immediately, citing a “review and determination that the award is inconsistent with the Administration’s priorities.”

The same weekend, the administration slashed over $1.3 billion in humanitarian aid globally, including $562 million designated for Afghanistan. This includes emergency food aid, health services, and support for women and girls from U.N. agencies and NGOs. The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned the decision “could amount to a death sentence” for millions facing hunger, particularly women and children.

“The Afghan awards were very carefully targeted at the most life-saving activities,” said Sarah Charles, former head of USAID’s humanitarian affairs bureau. “This will be devastating to the most vulnerable in Afghanistan who are… under the thumb of the Taliban.”

Nearly 23 million Afghans need humanitarian aid today and over half of them are children. The WFP provided food and cash to 12 million Afghans last year, prioritizing the most vulnerable groups like women and girls. With funding now halted, programs designed to alleviate hunger, provide reproductive health services, and offer educational hope are collapsing.

Among those affected is the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which lost a $24 million grant focused on women’s health in Afghanistan. These cuts are not only stripping resources but potentially destabilizing the country even further. 

The current administration’s dismantling of USAID appears to be deliberate and ideological. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has led the charge, often ignoring prior assurances to Congress that critical programs would remain protected, and showing no interest in the vulnerable populations affected by aid destruction.

Human rights advocates are calling the policy “cruel and shortsighted.” Sahar Fetrat of Human Rights Watch stated, “These programs were the last remaining loopholes for girls and women seeking higher education.” She called the aid suspensions “the final blow” to Afghan women’s ambitions.

Back in Kabul, R.K. now fears her two years of hard work may be wasted. R.K has 49 of 120 credits completed and no clear path forward. Why won’t the authorities of the world allow Afghan girls to study?

The answer, for now, remains buried in bureaucracy and political posturing—while Afghan women are left to watch their futures and dreams fade.

The terminations are expected to cause ripple effects beyond the immediate hunger crisis. Humanitarian experts warn that halting food and health assistance could drive increased instability, migration, and even recruitment into extremist groups like ISIS-K, the Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized the abrupt nature of the cuts, saying they “will have devastating consequences.”

For Afghan women—already stripped of most rights and access to education and healthcare—the cuts may represent the final unraveling of international support. With food insecurity worsening and essential services crumbling, millions are now left to fend for themselves under a regime that offers little in the way of protection or opportunity.

As international organizations scramble to reassess operations in the wake of these terminations, the question remains: who will step in to prevent this looming humanitarian catastrophe?

Eligible Afghan Refugees Denied Access to Resettlement Following Trump’s Executive Orders

Posted on by Sarah Hamidi

On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump introduced a slew of executive orders including the swift signing of an order suspending the resettlement of all refugees to the United States for an indefinite period of time. As a direct effect of this order, more than 1,600 Afghans who had been approved by the U.S. Government to resettle in the United States are having their flights canceled, including family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel.

The decision has led to panic among the prospective refugees, which include groups such as unaccompanied minors awaiting reunification with families in the U.S., as well as Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution for supporting the former U.S.-backed Afghan government. Following the release of the executive order by the White House, refugees approved for resettlement were removed from flights to the U.S. starting Jan. 27.

The executive order, which effectively suspends the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), has been implemented under the guise of ensuring public safety and national security and counteracting the need for federal aid to manage the “burden” of new arrivals. In reality, this action results in yet another broken promise by the United States as it risks abandoning thousands of Afghan allies that stood by the U.S. and its service members during two decades of conflict–a trend reminiscent of the aftermath of President Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2021. 

A majority of the Afghan citizens approved for refugee status had completed background and security checks and were either already scheduled on resettlement flights or in the final stages of approval, all of which was put on halt Monday evening with the signing of the executive order. This not only places Afghan allies in a compromising position but also directly contradicts President Trump’s previous stance that the withdrawal under President Biden was chaotic and it is up to him to “get these folks to safety”.

Since the abrupt and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, there has been a relocation of nearly 200,000 Afghans to the U.S. However, for the thousands awaiting resettlement and an escape from the Taliban’s rule, President Trump’s recent action has not only cast a shadow of uncertainty and anxiety on their future, but has heightened the possibility of these Afghan refugees facing retaliation from the Taliban.

In Pakistan, the suspension has left approximately 20,000 Afghan refugees in limbo. Many of these individuals, who had fled Afghanistan due to threats from the Taliban, now face the expiration of their visas and continue to ask the Pakistani government to ease visa regulations on humanitarian grounds. 

As many Afghan refugees fear arrest and deportation in Pakistan, the executive order’s repercussions extend beyond Afghanistan’s border countries. In Mexico, numerous Afghan refugees who had traveled there with the hope of entering the United States are now stranded. The abrupt cancellation of asylum appointments has left them in precarious situations, grappling with cultural and language barriers, financial hardships, and an uncertain future. 

The administration’s suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has ultimately left thousands of Afghan refugees in a perilous state, unable to adjust in their current host countries due to discrimination, social and cultural isolation, and uncertain asylum statuses—and unable to return to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan where their safety is at grave risk. This policy in effect not only abandons those who stood by the U.S. during two decades of conflict but also forces them into a dangerous position, further exacerbating a potential humanitarian crisis and once again leaving Afghans in the dust.

Gender Disparities in the Wake of the Los Angeles Wildfires

Posted on by Sarah Hamidi

Photo by Daniel Lincoln on Unsplash

As increasingly severe natural disasters rage across the globe, such as the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles, their devastating consequences extend beyond burned landscapes and lost homes. These disasters reveal stark gender disparities in their impact, underscoring why climate change must be viewed through a gender-sensitive lens.

Natural disasters, including wildfires, disproportionately affect women due to systemic inequalities and societal roles which can be exacerbated by climate change. Women are often primary caregivers, managing children, elderly family members, and individuals with disabilities during crises. This caregiving role places them at greater risk when evacuation orders are issued, as seen in the recent Los Angeles wildfires.

Pregnant women, for instance, face severe health challenges when exposed to wildfire smoke, with intensified risks for women of color. Wildfire smoke and fumes can lead to preterm births, low birth weights, and increased maternal stress. These disaster-driven issues highlight not only the critical need for targeted health interventions to protect expectant mothers during these emergencies, but also one of the many ways in which climate change and natural disasters specifically impact women. 

While media and social media coverage of the Los Angeles fires has focused on the lost celebrity mansions, shopping centers, and movie landmarks, the impacted area of Altadena happens to be a historically Black neighborhood in which generations of people of color began to settle during the civil rights era in avoidance of discriminatory housing practices elsewhere. 

Systemic inequalities and historic disinvestment in communities of color such as Altadena amplify the impact of disasters like the Los Angeles wildfires. Women of color are more likely to live in areas with limited access to emergency services, safe housing, and clean air—conditions worsened by the effects of wildfires. These communities often face greater exposure to toxic air pollution from wildfire smoke, compounding health risks for women and their families.

Climate disasters also tend to amplify pre-existing social inequalities. When looking at the impacts of disasters like wildfires, it is evident that women are more likely to suffer from post-disaster poverty and food insecurity. Furthermore, cultural and social norms often limit women’s participation in decision-making processes related to disaster response and climate resilience planning.

For instance, wildfire recovery efforts often focus on infrastructure and resource distribution but fail to address the specific needs of women, such as access to reproductive health services or provisions for menstrual hygiene products in evacuation shelters. Race, immigration status, poverty, place of work, language ability, and mental health conditions are also key factors that impact who has access to knowledge and resources to protect themselves from wildfire smoke while pregnant. This underscores the need for inclusive policies that consider these realities and amplify the needs and voices of women in affected communities.

The ongoing Los Angeles wildfires serve as a powerful reminder of the urgent need to address gender disparities in the face of climate change. By acknowledging and addressing these inequalities, policymakers and organizations can create more equitable solutions that ensure no one is left behind.

As climate disasters become more frequent and severe, the call for inclusive and equitable climate action has never been more pressing. Women’s voices must be at the forefront of these efforts, championing resilience and equality in the face of a rapidly changing world.

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