By Aine Alexander-Mullen '25
Just over three years since the American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the reinstatement of Taliban power, the struggles of Afghan women are growing more and more intense, despite little attention from main stream media. Afghanistan, once a nation celebrated for its reform on women's rights, has seen drastic and dangerous changes under Taliban rule. Since their emergence in the early 90s, the Taliban, an Islamic nationalist group, has developed a reputation for extreme abuses to human rights, particularly those of women.
In the past, the Taliban has forbid women from studying and attending
university, going outside without a male chaperone, accessing healthcare, participating in politics, and defending their rights, amongst many other abuses. Most recently though, they enacted a decree that makes it illegal for a woman to sing or speak in public, to look men they are not related to in the eye, and mandates that women cover every inch of their bodies in order to “avoid male temptation.” This news is especially jarring when it is juxtaposed with the nation Afghanistan once was.
Photo Courtesy of AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi
Edited By Catherine Grace Polatidis '26 and Ms. Brilliant
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