The Systematic Oppression of Afghan Women and Girls Since the Taliban’s Takeover in 2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59110/aplikatif.v4i1.555Keywords:
Afghan Women, Education, Employment, Public Participation, TalibanAbstract
This study examines the impact of the Taliban's policies on Afghan women's access to education, employment, and public participation since their return to power in 2021. By conducting a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed articles, reports, and academic papers published between 2021 and 2024, the research identifies key barriers Afghan women face in these critical areas. The review draws data from several reputable databases including Google Scholar, JSTOR, Scopus, PubMed, and SpringerLink. The findings reveal significant setbacks in women's rights, with strict restrictions on education, limited employment opportunities, and reduced participation in public life. The analysis also highlights the broader socio-economic and psychological consequences of these policies, emphasizing the detrimental impact on Afghanistan's development and international relations. The study calls for targeted international interventions, humanitarian support, and policy changes to address the gender-based discrimination imposed by the Taliban. Recommendations include sanctions against Taliban leadership, expansion of scholarship programs for Afghan women, support for Afghan-led advocacy movements, and the establishment of economic empowerment initiatives. The findings underscore the importance of international solidarity in restoring Afghan women's rights and freedoms.
References
Ahmad, A., Rassa, N., Orcutt, M., Blanchet, K., & Haqmal, M. (2021). Urgent health and humanitarian needs of the Afghan population under the Taliban. The Lancet, 398(10303), 822-825. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01963-2
Bhanuwati, A. H. (2024, December). From power to oppression: Threats to the security of Afghan women in the new era of the Taliban regime. Proceedings of Sunan Ampel International Conference of Political and Social Sciences, 2, 192-205. https://doi.org/10.15642/saicopss.2024.2..192-205
Blum, R. W., Li, M., Pasha, O., Rao, C., & Natiq, K. (2019). Coming of age in the shadow of the Taliban: Education, child marriage, and the future of Afghanistan from the perspectives of adolescents and their parents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 64(3), 370-375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.09.014
Bogaert, H. (2022). History repeating itself: The resurgence of the Taliban and the abandonment of Afghan women. Immigration and Human Rights Law Review, 4(1), Article 3. https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/ihrlr/vol4/iss1/3
BN, A., & Chowdhury, P. D. (2022). Afghan women and the Taliban: Tracing questions of legal rights, insecurity and uncertainty in select texts vis-à-vis the current crisis. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 14(4). https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.26
Butt, A. K. (2024). Educational pursuits of resilient Afghan women students in Qatar post-2021 Taliban takeover: Challenges, migration motives and future aspirations (Master's thesis, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar).
DAHEL Mohamed Tayeb, S. N. (2023). Taliban taking over, August 2021. http://dspace.univ-guelma.dz/jspui/handle/123456789/15546
Дутта, М. (2023). Disappearing Afghan women from public spaces—Collapse of women’s rights in Afghanistan. Вестник Карагандинского университета Серия История. Философия, 111(3), 79-89. https://doi.org/10.31489/2023hph3/79-89
Hakim, R. (2024). Strategies for enhancing breast cancer screening among afghan refugee women in the unites states: insights and interventions. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0369.v1
Howard, N., Shafi, A., Jones, C., & Rowland, M. (2010). Malaria control under the Taliban regime: Insecticide-treated net purchasing, coverage, and usage among men and women in eastern Afghanistan. Malaria Journal, 9, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-9-7
Hussain, F., Amin, S. N., & Rezaie, R. (2024). ICTs for Afghan women's empowerment in the pre‐ and new‐Taliban era: Roles of gender, education, and crises. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 90(5), e12326. https://doi.org/10.1002/isd2.12326
Johnson, T. H. (2007). The Taliban insurgency and an analysis of Shabnamah (Night Letters). Small Wars & Insurgencies, 18(3), 317-344. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592310701674176
Johnson, T. H. (2013). Taliban adaptations and innovations. Small Wars & Insurgencies, 24(1), 3-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2013.740228
Johnson, T. H., & Waheed, A. (2011). Analyzing Taliban taranas (chants): An effective Afghan propaganda artifact. Small Wars & Insurgencies, 22(1), 3-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2011.546572
Kandiyoti, D. (2007). Between the hammer and the anvil: Post-conflict reconstruction, Islam, and women's rights. Third World Quarterly, 28(3), 503-517. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590701192603
Mahjebeen, J. (2024). Gender equality, constitutionalism, and women's rights in Afghanistan: Contestations and challenges. International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, 11(4), 415-427. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJHRCS.2024.141726
Noury, A. G., & Speciale, B. (2016). Social constraints and women's education: Evidence from Afghanistan under radical religious rule. Journal of Comparative Economics, 44(4), 821-841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2016.07.005
Pereira, J. S. R. (2023). Afghan women and structural violence: The implication of discourse in the War on Terror (Master's thesis, ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal). https://www.proquest.com/openview/d97ae29e92bf5e09fe0db98ef2644021/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2026366&diss=y
Qazi Zada, S., & Qazi Zada, M. Z. (2024). The Taliban and women's human rights in Afghanistan: The way forward. The International Journal of Human Rights, 28(10), 1687-1722. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2024.2369584
Raheel, H., Karim, M., Saleem, S., & Bharwani, S. (2012). Knowledge, attitudes and practices of contraception among afghan refugee women in pakistan: a cross-sectional study. Plos One, 7(11), e48760. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048760
Ruttig, T. (2021). Have the Taliban changed? Combating Terrorism Center Sentinel, 14(3), 1-15. https://ctc.westpoint.edu/have-the-taliban-changed/
Sabbah, F. (2024). Strategies of advocating for female Afghan students' right to education on the Twitter social media networking site after the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. In War, Mobility, Displacement and Their Impact on Higher Education (Vol. 55, pp. 33-49). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120240000055003
Sarwar, S., Irfan, A., & Rashid, M. T. (2023). Women’s rights in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime amid Indian influence: A way forward (2016–2022). Journal of Indian Studies, 9(2), 207-224. https://jis.pu.edu.pk/44/article/view/1335
Vivin, R. R. (2023). Exploring the confluence of Islamic principles and legal systems: An insight into Sharia and women in Afghanistan one year after the Taliban takeover. Legal Lock Journal, 3, 120. https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/lgllckjnl3&div=66&id=&page=
Yusufzai, M. A., & Kumar, G. R. (2022). Gender inequalities in access to the right to education: The consequences of the Taliban’s gender-based educational policy on women in Afghanistan. The Journal of Human Rights, 17(2), 107-130. https://doi.org/10.22096/hr.2024.2022754.1653
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Setara Javed, Tamanna Quraishi, Nargis Hakimi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
