Kabul seeks investment and an embassy as half of women's groups face closure
The Taliban government is asking Washington for an embassy and mining investment as Afghan women describe daily restrictions. Funding cuts now threaten to close half of the country's women-led groups.
Geopolitics··Evening
Muttaqi seeks an embassy and mining investment
Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told The New York Times that Afghanistan wants relations with the United States built on mutual respect. He said the chapter of war has come to an end, that Washington could reopen its embassy in Kabul, keep a diplomatic presence and invest in mines, dams and roads, and he ruled out any return of American troops. The appeal came five years after American forces withdrew and the Taliban returned to power. The government in Kabul is working to reduce its isolation and has built ties with Russia, Uzbekistan and other neighbours. Michael Kugelman of the Atlantic Council said Afghan mineral wealth could appeal to an administration focused on economic interests. The United States spent about 1 billion dollars on the Afghan mining sector between 2004 and 2021, and a government watchdog later concluded the effort had produced little. Former diplomat Robin Raphel said renewed engagement would require a hands-on American presence in Kabul, which she said remains a hard sell in Washington. The package pairs an embassy and mining investment with a bar on troops, while a working diplomatic presence in Kabul is still treated in Washington as a difficult threshold.[1]
Women describe daily bans as Muttaqi disputes their scale
In the same week, women across Afghanistan told the BBC that their lives are unrecognisable five years after the Taliban takeover. Girls over 12 have been barred from school, travel without a male chaperone has been restricted, and a law implying legal approval for child marriage has been brought in. Afghanistan is the only country where girls are officially banned from secondary and higher education. Asked about a Unicef report saying around 2.6 million girls cannot attend school beyond Grade 6, Muttaqi told the BBC that it is not correct to say everything is banned for women and that 3 million girls attend schools and madrassas. Asked how religious schools would produce doctors, he said only one small part of women's affairs is restricted until further notice. The United Nations says 7 percent of women in Afghanistan are employed. A woman named Shakiba said 15 August was the most painful day of her life; she finished secondary school online but no longer believes she can become a pilot. Official language narrows the ban to a limited slice, while the testimonies describe education, movement and work tightening together; both accounts now sit side by side.[2]
Funding cuts push half of women's groups toward closure
UN Women reported that more than half of 74 women's organisations surveyed in Afghanistan could suspend or close within a year. Susan Ferguson, its special representative in Afghanistan, appealed to donor countries not to cut funding for women's programmes, saying that would only deepen the suffering of Afghan women. Nearly three-quarters of those organisations faced budget cuts in 2025, and two-thirds said they had six months or less of operating funds left. The 1.7 billion dollars humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan is only 25 per cent funded. More than 100 decrees restricting women's rights have been issued since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. A joint statement by 56 countries said the systematic repression of women and girls has become a defining feature of the current system. As Kabul asks Washington for an embassy and mining investment, the field testimonies and the UN Women closure warning sit on the same fifth anniversary: a diplomatic opening request, daily restrictions on women and a weakening aid network form one picture. If the funding line is cut, more than half of the organisations that still prop up women's survival could leave the stage within a year.[3], [1], [2]
