Five years after the Taliban won, Afghanistan is still losing

Five years have passed since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, and the nation continues to endure one of the world's most severe humanitarian and human rights crises. The United States, once the primary source of aid for the country, now ranks far down the list of donors, having cut humanitarian aid dramatically. Since the Taliban's return to power, women and girls have faced the most severe repercussions, with their rights being systematically stripped away under a regime likened to "gender apartheid."

Under Taliban rule, girls are prohibited from attending school beyond the sixth grade, which has left a generation of girls without access to secondary education. This ban has effectively kept 2.4 million girls out of school. Women are barred from most jobs, forced to wear face coverings in public, and restricted from traveling long distances without a male chaperone. The isolation faced by women has led to a mental health emergency, with seven in ten women reporting their mental health as "bad" or "very bad."

Amnesty International and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child have warned that a recent Taliban decree legalizing men's right to beat their wives, provided no permanent harm is done, is legitimizing child marriage and will exacerbate the crisis. The decree also makes it more difficult for women to leave abusive marriages and lowers the minimum legal age for marriage from 16.

This has resulted in a significant increase in child marriages since the Taliban's return to power. Former Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko has described the situation for women in Afghanistan as "hell" and criticized the international community, particularly the Trump administration, for not taking any action to address the deteriorating situation.