KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The human rights situation in Afghanistan “continues to deteriorate dramatically,” with life for ordinary Afghans, particularly women and girls, worsening sharply under Taliban rule, a new UN report said.
The report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), covering August 2025 to January 2026, was presented at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday. It said Taliban decrees and restrictions imposed since 2021 have had a “crushing impact” on the population, especially women and girls.
“The cascade of edicts and laws announced by the de facto authorities since coming to power in 2021 is having a crushing impact on the Afghan people, particularly women and girls,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said while presenting the report.
The report said women remain barred from education beyond sixth grade and from higher education following a ban imposed in December 2022. Medical graduation exams were again held in November 2025 without women for a second consecutive year.
Taliban security forces have prevented Afghan women, including UN staff, contractors and visitors, from entering UN premises across the country since September 7, 2025. The ban was still in force at the end of January 2026, limiting the UN’s ability to operate.
Female civil servants, ordered to stay home since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, were informed in January 2026 that they would no longer receive salaries and that their employment had effectively ended. The report said the decision was carried out with “minimal transparency, no due process, and no mitigation measures.”
Dress restrictions on women also tightened in some provinces under the Taliban’s “Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,” the report said. Women who did not comply with the chador requirement were removed from public transport and denied access to markets and public services.
Books authored by women were removed from bookstores and libraries, including some university libraries, regardless of subject matter or nationality. The teaching of human rights and gender studies was also banned.
“The de facto authorities have, in effect, criminalized the presence of women and girls in public life,” Türk said. “Discrimination affects their healthcare, their access to civic space, and their freedom of movement and expression.”
“Afghanistan is a graveyard for human rights,” he added.
The report said journalists face arbitrary arrests and detention, while live political talk shows are banned and music and drama are restricted on broadcast media. Female journalists face additional challenges, including one case in which a woman reporter’s microphone was deliberately switched off during a press briefing.
Regarding the humanitarian situation, the report said about 21.9 million people, or about 45% of the population, are projected to need humanitarian assistance this year. It cited declining international aid, the return of nearly three million Afghans from neighboring countries in 2025, and ongoing drought as key factors.
Türk said millions of Afghans live in “utter poverty” and are deprived of food, clean water, education, healthcare, and employment. He added that two earthquakes in late 2025 and funding cuts have further worsened conditions.
The report called on the Taliban to rescind discriminatory decrees, restore women’s access to education and employment, halt executions, end arbitrary detentions, and ensure freedom of expression. It also urged countries to stop forced returns of Afghans and support an independent mechanism to investigate international crimes.
“Women and girls are the present and the future, and the country cannot thrive without them,” Türk said.
