Outreach and shrinking women's rights five years into Taliban rule
As the Taliban administration asks Washington to reopen its embassy and invest, Afghan women describe restrictions on education and movement, while funding cuts threaten more than half of surveyed women's organisations with closure.
Geopolitics··Night
A new appeal from Kabul to Washington
Five years after the Taliban returned to power, the administration in Kabul is putting diplomacy and investment at the centre of a proposed relationship with Washington. Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said Afghanistan wanted ties with the United States based on mutual respect. In comments to The New York Times, he said the chapter of war had ended, suggested Washington could maintain a diplomatic presence and invest in mines, dams and roads, and ruled out the return of American troops. The appeal comes as the administration seeks to reduce its isolation by building relations with Russia, Uzbekistan and other neighbours. Michael Kugelman of the Atlantic Council says Afghanistan's mineral wealth could appeal to a US administration focused on economic interests. Past experience also shows the difficulty of that proposal: between 2004 and 2021, the United States spent about 1 billion dollars on Afghan mining, and a government watchdog later concluded that the effort had achieved little. Former diplomat Robin Raphel says renewed engagement could require a hands-on American presence in Kabul, an option that remains difficult to sell in Washington.[1]
Women's lives under tighter limits
On the anniversary marked by this outward appeal, Afghan women describe how their room to live ordinary lives has narrowed. Women who spoke to the BBC said girls over 12 were barred from school, travel without a male chaperone was restricted and a law implied legal approval for child marriage. Afghanistan is the only country where girls are officially excluded from secondary and higher education. Unicef says about 2.6 million girls cannot attend school beyond Grade 6. Muttaqi disputed the description that everything was banned for women, arguing that 3 million girls attended schools and madrassas and that only a small part of women's affairs was restricted until further notice. That response does not resolve the question of access to secondary and higher education. The United Nations figure showing 7 per cent of women in employment indicates that the limits also reach working life. Shakiba, who completed secondary school online, said she no longer believed she could become a pilot. Appeals for diplomatic relations and investment seek room for state-to-state engagement, while rules governing education, movement and work continue to reduce the room available to women.[2]
Funding pressure on women's organisations
Restrictions on rights are being accompanied by a weakening of the aid networks that reach women. More than half of the 74 women's organisations surveyed in Afghanistan by UN Women said they could suspend operations or close within a year. Nearly three-quarters experienced budget cuts in 2025, and two-thirds had six months or less of operating funds left. The 1.7 billion dollars humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan is only 25 per cent funded. Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, more than 100 decrees restricting women's rights have been issued; a joint statement by 56 countries described systematic repression of women and girls as a defining feature of the current system. Local women's organisations are struggling to maintain basic work while Kabul seeks international investment and a renewed diplomatic presence. The outreach proposal focuses on opening mines, dams and roads to investment; the humanitarian funding gap raises the risk that organisations helping women navigate restrictions on education, employment and movement will disappear. The two directions of the fifth anniversary are visible at once: the administration is trying to widen its external relationships as women's space in public life, and the resources of institutions supporting them, continue to contract.[3], [2], [1]
