women in Afghanistan

Women's rights in Afghanistan are severely restricted by the Taliban. In 2023, the United Nations termed Afghanistan as the world's most repressive country for women. Since the US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban gradually imposed many restrictions on women's freedom of movement, education, and employment. Women are banned from studying in secondary schools and universities, making Afghanistan the only country to prohibit women from studying beyond the sixth grade (age 12). Women are not allowed in parks, gyms, or beauty salons. They are forbidden from going outside for a walk or exercise, from speaking or showing any part of their face or body outside the home, or even from singing or reading from within their own homes if they could be heard by strangers outside. In extreme cases, women have reportedly been subjected to rape and torture in Taliban prisons.

Women face harsh punishments such as flogging and stoning to death for adultery. There has been an increase in female suicides and sexual crimes targeted at women following the takeover of the Taliban in 2021. Many women have left the country to places such as Iran to pursue education and employment. The discrimination against women and systematic segregation in Afghanistan under the Taliban has been termed as "gender apartheid" by organizations such as the UN and Amnesty International.