Afghan Women's Support Forum

Kay Summers May 5, 2026 The Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in August 2021, twenty years after their ouster by U.S. troops. Since then, all the progress for women made over the course of the U.S. occupation has been reversed, resulting in strict, fundamentalist rules, ongoing economic turmoil and severe restrictions on employment and education for women […]

The wife of Salam Matftoon, a local singer, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in the northeastern province of Badakhshan, local sources said, in the latest in a series of killings reported across the country in recent days. Sources told Amu TV that that the incident happened early Thursday morning in Ishkashim district when […]

Women and girls in Afghanistan are facing a rapidly deepening humanitarian crisis marked by hunger, economic desperation, worsening health care access and growing social isolation, according to a major new gender analysis released by humanitarian organizations working in the country. The report, produced by the Afghanistan Gender Coordination Group with support from UN agencies, says […]

Statement by The Rt Hon Baroness Smith of Malvern, Minister of State (Minister for Skills) and Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities) at the UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan. Colleagues, let me first begin by expressing the United Kingdom’s deep concern at the intensification of the Taliban’s repression.  We are appalled by […]

Remarks by UN Women Afghanistan Special Representative, Susan Ferguson, at UN Headquarters in New York, speaking from Kabul. For women and girls in Afghanistan, 2026 was already proving to be an extremely difficult year. Now, with the conflict in the Middle East and on-going hostilities with Pakistan, many are facing even more trauma and hardship. […]

Statement by UN Women Special Representative in Afghanistan, Susan Ferguson. Kabul, Afghanistan – The latest decree issued by the de facto authorities in Afghanistan further diminishes the rights of women and girls and exposes them to even greater risk of violence.           Page Navigation                                     […]

There is something profoundly defiant, almost incendiary, about Afghan women writers. When the Taliban regained control of Kabul in August 2021, images of women protesting in the streets and girls being barred from classrooms circulated around the world. Since then, regressive laws have been introduced as part of the systemic suppression of women’s public life in Afghanistan, including banning women […]

Mahfouz Zubaide Afghanistan producer Fahima Noori had big dreams when she graduated from university in Afghanistan. She had studied law, graduated from a midwifery programme and even worked in a mental health clinic. But all that was taken away when the Taliban swept into power in 2021. They banned girls over the age of 12 […]

Yogita Limaye BBC South Asia and Afghanistan correspondent Gusts of wind blew dust up off the ground as Ghulam Mohiddin and his wife Nazo walked towards the graveyard where all their children are buried. They showed us the graves of the three boys they lost in the past two years – one-year-old Rahmat, seven-month-old Koatan […]

Ali Hussaini BBC Afghan The Taliban government has removed books written by women from the university teaching system in Afghanistan as part of a new ban which has also outlawed the teaching of human rights and sexual harassment. Some 140 books by women – including titles like “Safety in the Chemical Laboratory” – were among […]

14th September, 2025 Yogita Limaye BBC South Asia and Afghanistan correspondent When Shahnaz went into labour, her husband Abdul called a taxi to take them to the only medical facility accessible to them. “She was in a lot pain,” he says. A 20-minute drive away, the clinic was in Shesh Pol village in Afghanistan’s north-eastern […]

11 September 2025 Women The United Nations in Afghanistan called on Thursday for the de facto Taliban authorities to lift restrictions barring women national staff from entering its premises.  These measures are putting life-saving humanitarian assistance and other essential services for hundreds of thousands of people affected by a recent deadly earthquake at risk, the UN Assistance Mission […]

Kavya Keshavamurthy | September 5, 2025 A powerful 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan’s mountainous northeast province of Kunar on August 31st, leaving devastation in its wake. The Taliban has confirmed a death toll of over 2,200 people, although this number is continuing to rise as rescue teams race against time to reach survivors still trapped under rubble. […]

United Nations, New York, 5 September 2025 – Some 11,600 pregnant women are estimated to have been impacted by the earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan on 31 August, which was followed by several aftershocks. Within hours of the strike, UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, deployed emergency response and mobile health teams to affected […]

Women who fled when the Taliban regained power are on a mission to be selected to represent their country. By Rob Harris, sports correspondent, and Jacquie Beltrao, sports presenter. Far from home – at the St George’s Park home of the Lionesses – female footballers from Afghanistan have been reunited. https://news.sky.com/story/meet-the-women-who-never-gave-up-on-football-now-hoping-to-secure-their-place-on-an-afghan-squad-13421076 Finally, they are playing […]

Amid the Taliban’s strict decrees in Afghanistan, the Afghan women shared their ordeal of being ignored by male rescuers after two deadly earthquakes jolted the country, killing more than 2,200 people. The rescue workers helped men and children, but women were pushed aside. It is because Taliban laws forbid physical touch between unrelated men and […]

11 August 2025 Women UN News Global perspective Human stories In 2021, an Afghan woman could have run for president – although none did. Spool forward to 2025, they can’t even speak in public. There is an edict from the Taliban which labels public speaking by women a moral violation.   Four years after Taliban fighters retook […]

Mahjooba Nowrouzi BBC Afghan Service, in Kabul High on a hill in the west of the Afghan capital, Kabul, behind a steel gate topped with barbed wire, lies a place few locals speak of, and even fewer visit. The women’s wing of a mental health centre run by the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) is […]

7 August 2025 Women The international community must provide greater support to Afghan women and girl returnees from Iran and Pakistan who face increased risk of impoverishment, early marriage and growing threats to their rights and safety.   UN Women – which champions gender empowerment and equality – alongside the international humanitarian agency CARE International and partners, issued […]