Women from Afghanistan in Exile

Despite the risks, women organized protests for their rights in Afghanistan risking a beating, going to jail, or death. Source:…

On February 5, 2025, hacked documents from institutions under the Taliban group control revealed that the regime was holding around 1,400 women and over 16,000 men in detention. Since the summer of 2024, a Taliban law aimed at “promoting virtue and preventing vice” has banned women of Afghanistan from speaking outside their homes, wearing makeup, or using perfume. They are also required to completely cover their bodies in the presence of a man who is not their husband. This series of measures has been described as discrimination by the UN, warning of the gradual erasure of women’s rights in Afghanistan.

On August 15, 2021, the Taliban group regained power in Afghanistan after a swift offensive that culminated in the fall of Kabul. Their takeover came amid the U.S. withdrawal, which officially concluded on August 31st, 2021. Due to the extremist beliefs of the Taliban group leaders;  they initially promised to respect human rights within the framework of “Islamic law”. However, within months, they began imposing severe restrictions, particularly on women, gradually preventing them from accessing education, employment, and public spaces.

Apartheid for women

In September 2021, women were banned from returning to government jobs, except in certain sectors like health and education, according to Human Rights Watch. Beyond restricting their activities, the Taliban group has imposed strict dress codes and behavioral rules. Shortly after their return to power, the Taliban group Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice was reinstated and enforced these regulations through morality police, which patrols the streets to ensure compliance. In non-compliance cases, women face severe punishments, including public humiliation, imprisonment, and physical violence, as documented by The Guardian.

International condemnation has been widespread, with the United Nations and human rights organizations consistently denouncing the Taliban group’s policies as a form of gender apartheid.

Despite these restrictions, women of Afghanistan have continued to resist, staging protests despite the risks. In multiple demonstrations throughout 2023 and 2024, women have demanded the restoration of their rights and dignity, often facing brutal crackdowns. The Washington Post reported that, in some cases, Taliban group forces responded with arrests and beatings, attempting to silence any opposition.

An increasingly bleak future for women

Meanwhile, the Taliban group governance has deepened Afghanistan’s international isolation. The country remains unrecognized by most governments, with economic sanctions and frozen assets exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis. According to the World Food Program, nearly two-thirds of the population faces food insecurity, with women and children being the most affected.

As the restrictions intensify, the future of women in Afghanistan appears increasingly bleak. The Taliban group continues to justify its policies under its interpretation of Islamic law, ignoring growing international pressure. With each new decree, the space for women in Afghanistan to exist in society grows smaller, raising fears that their erasure from public life may soon become complete.

Made by Christèle Avom and Juliette Huvet/EPJT

According to Independant Persian, after the Taliban group took control of Afghanistan, many of its leaders and commanders pursued second, third, and fourth marriages. Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, Mawlawi Salahuddin Ayoubi, and Mawlawi Amanuddin Mansoor are among the ones who married for the third time in the past five months. In the meantime, countless lower-ranking Taliban group commanders have taken additional wives, often using their newfound wealth to marry young women. This trend suggests a deliberate effort to consolidate power and reinforce internal alliances, while also using marital practices as a way to project strength and control within the regime.

Banned from studying, deprived of the right to work, and brutally repressed for protesting, women in Afghanistan have been erased from public life. Roquia Saee, Zarmina Paryani, and Dr. Karima Azam, now exiled in Germany and Pakistan, have paid a heavy price for their fight for women’s rights and their convictions. A fight that they carry along everyday and voice them out today.

Stories of Struggle and Oppression

Roquia Saee, 30, aspired to join the army of Afghanistan before the fall of Kabul changed her fate. The childhood dream she wanted to achieve and love for her nation drove her to engagement. Widow of a major killed before the Taliban group’s arrival, she watched her country slip away. Faced with the university education ban for women decreed in December 2022, she joined the ranks of protesters in Kabul to make herself heard. In this fight she was arrested by the Taliban group, she endured violent interrogations and torture in prison: “My eyes were blindfolded, they poured cold water on my face, demanding to know who I was spying for, she recalls. I was with four other women, and we were questioned on our motivations. Why are you doing that? Are you sponsored by a foreign county?” The only answer she could give was that she is a mother of two children and she could not allow the Taliban group to destroy everything unjustly. “Though I have not yet shared my experience with my children, they are scared every time I am late at school. They always recall the trauma they went through when I was in jail in Afghanistan,” she says.

Karima Azam, 34, doctor and former head of a library, has always had a strong belief in women’s rights and dignity. She was imprisoned and raped after protesting against the Taliban group regime while in Afghanistan. After her four-day emprisonnent, her husband abandoned her with the children because of what she suffered through in jail. Now in Pakistan with her four children, she continues to advocate for women of Afghanistan rights despite ongoing threats. “My activism is not a choice, it is a necessity. If we don’t speak up, who will?”

Zarmina Paryani, 26, was a midwife in Afghanistan. Alongside her sisters, she was actively engaged in defending human rights, outraged by the restrictions imposed on women after the Taliban group took power. Without a burqa and unaccompanied by a man, she was refused access to buses and taxis or worse, beaten in the streets. One night in 2022, the Taliban group stormed her apartment, blowing the door open. She was arrested and imprisoned for 26 days. “I couldn’t sleep. I heard the screams of people being tortured and killed. That sound has never left me,” she says. To this day, she suffers from nightmares. Before her imprisonment, Zarmina was a Muslim. But what she endured in prison made her abandon her faith. “How can I still believe after this?” she says. The Taliban group humiliated her, taking photos of her naked chest, threatening to release them to disgrace her family if she ever spoke out. It was a video, filmed by her sister during their arrest, that ultimately saved her life. The footage showed the Taliban group raiding their home, and it went viral. Killing her became too risky. “They could have executed me. But they knew the world was watching.”

Like thousands of women in Afghanistan, they suffered through hell at the hands of the Taliban group.

“The situation is becoming increasingly dire.
Women are being erased from public life”

Heather Barr, associate director
for women’s rights at Human Rights Watch

Since 2021, the international community has condemned the treatment of women in Afghanistan. According to the UN, 80% of school age girls and women are denied access to secondary and higher education. Amnesty International has documented dozens of arbitrary arrests and cases of torture inflicted on women’s rights activists. Other NGOs, like Human Rights Watch, have warned of extrajudicial executions and the forced disappearance of female opponents.

The Taliban group has dissolved the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and banned NGOs from employing women. “The situation is becoming increasingly dire. Women are being erased from public life,” says Heather Barr, associate director for women’s rights at Human Rights Watch. Roquia Saee testifies: “In some provinces of Afghanistan which don’t have access to media, men glared at us if we dared to go out without a burqa. I saw women being beaten in the street.”

A Call to the International Community

Despite being in exile, Roquia Saee and Karima Azam refuse to remain silent. Keeping what they have been through is not an option. They call for international mobilization. “We are alone. The international community must listen to us. The UN must act, the world cannot forget us, pleads Dr. Azam. I want my daughters to have a future, to be able to study and work without fearing arrest or beatings,” she adds.

Today, despite the trauma, Zarmina Paryani also continues to speak out. Because silence, she says, would be another form of submission. As for Roquia Saee, she stresses the urgency of the situation: “Every day, a woman disappears or is imprisoned. We cannot wait any longer.” While thousands of women of Afghanistan seek to flee, those who stay in the county risk their lives to demand their rights. NGOs are calling for stricter sanctions against the Taliban group and easier access to political asylum for refugees from Afghanistan. This situation is worsening day by day since the second the Taliban group entered government. Women are forced into marriages. Young girls get married before their majority without their consent. The Taliban ruling group has placed women into low grade positions. Assimilating them to babies making machines, considering them to be empty vases without emotions… just speechless being. The fight for women’s rights in Afghanistan must not be forgotten. It demands an immediate response and unwavering solidarity. As they continue their activism, these exiled fighters are determined to make their voices heard.