Human Rights Watch: Taliban Target Working Women with Harassment and Arrests

Photo: Kiana Hayeri / Amnesty International

Human Rights Watch, in a report published on the occasion of International Workers’ Day, stated that Taliban-imposed restrictions have not only severely reduced women’s job opportunities but also subjected the few who still leave home for work to threats, interrogations, and in some cases, arrests.

The report, released on Thursday (May 1), highlights that Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice officers have harassed working women in some cases.

According to Human Rights Watch, formal employment opportunities for women have nearly vanished. In addition to being barred from government and private sector jobs, the closure of beauty salons has deprived more than 60,000 women of their income.

While women's workforce participation stood at about 19 percent under the previous government, this figure has dropped to roughly 5 percent under Taliban rule. The group’s restrictions have not only undermined women’s rights to work and education but have also contributed to rising rates of violence, forced marriages, and child marriages across Afghanistan.