KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Taliban authorities intensified discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities across Afghanistan in 2025, denying them equal access to jobs, public services, economic resources, aid, and religious freedoms, human rights group Rawadari said in a new report.
In its annual Afghanistan Human Rights Situation Report 2025, based on interviews across 30 provinces and released Wednesday, Rawadari said such abuses were “widespread and systematic,” with Hazara Shias and the Ismaili community among the most affected.
The report said Taliban policies limited religious freedom, including the forced teaching of Hanafi jurisprudence to children of other sects and efforts to compel conversion. Development projects and humanitarian aid were disproportionately directed toward Pashtun-majority districts aligned with the Taliban.
Rawadari found that in Ghazni province, cash and food assistance reached 9,820 families in five Pashtun districts in February, while no minority families received aid. In Parwan province, 136 development projects were implemented in Shinwari district, with far fewer in minority areas.
The group also documented employment discrimination, noting that the Taliban prioritizes ideological loyalty over merit. Since returning to power in 2021, they have largely dismissed former government employees and replaced them with affiliates. “During 2025, in Ghazni, at least 19 positions occupied by Hazara and Tajik employees were removed from the provincial local administration,” the report said.
A Hazara applicant in Ghor province was rejected after passing a recruitment test once authorities learned his ethnicity. “They realized I was Hazara, and their tone changed,” he told Rawadari. “One of the officials told me directly: ‘We need someone who is aligned with us.’”
According to the report, the Taliban tightened restrictions on Shia religious practice. During Muharram, mourning flags were removed, processions were blocked, and public ceremonies were restricted in several provinces. Shia mosques were told to synchronize their call to prayer with Sunni mosques or stop broadcasting it.
In Ghazni, the Taliban PVPV department detained three Shia scholars for holding Eid prayers a day after the Taliban’s official announcement. In Jaghori and Malistan districts, Shia citizens fasting under their own religious practice were forced to break their fast and drink water, the report said.
Ismaili Shias in Badakhshan reported threats, detentions, and forced study of Hanafi jurisprudence, with some aid access conditioned on conversion to Sunni Islam. Rawadari described this as “the most severe violation of human rights, and in particular a violation of religious freedom.”
According to the report, women and girls faced further restrictions under the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice law, limiting education, employment, movement, and access to justice. Mandatory hijab rules and the requirement of a male guardian forced many women to leave jobs, particularly in the health and education sectors.
“I worked in the maternity ward of a hospital, but when the new restrictions were imposed, conditions became extremely difficult for us,” a woman from Bamyan province said. “When they told me I was not permitted to go to work without a mahram, I was forced to give up my job.”
A nurse in Parwan described constant monitoring by authorities. “They turned the environment into something resembling a prison for both healthcare workers and patients,” she said, adding that repeated checks on dress and movement forced her to resign.
Rawadari said the measures constitute organized gender persecution and could amount to a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute.
The report calls on the Taliban to end discrimination against minorities, ensure equal access to jobs and services, and halt coercion and forced conversion. It also urges the restoration of women’s rights, including access to education and employment, and freedom of movement.
Rawadari recommended that the international community condition engagement with the Taliban on measurable improvements in rights for women and minorities, and support accountability mechanisms and protection pathways for those at risk.
