On the fourth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power (15 August 2021), Human Rights Watch has issued a stark warning: systematic repression in Afghanistan has reached unprecedented levels.
The report highlights sweeping restrictions on women and girls, the suppression of media, and the arbitrary detention of dissenters, calling the current situation one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Heather Abbasi, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, described the anniversary as “a grim reminder of the Taliban’s escalating abuses, especially against women and girls.” She urged the international community to take immediate action to hold Taliban leaders accountable and stressed that “no country should forcibly return any Afghan national.”
According to the report, the Taliban have aggressively enforced their so-called “morality laws”—raiding workplaces, establishing checkpoints, and requiring women to be accompanied by a male guardian (mahram)—seriously disrupting daily life, healthcare access, and humanitarian aid. Women remain banned from secondary education, universities, and most forms of employment.
Arbitrary arrests are on the rise for offenses such as playing music, “improper” dress, or gender mixing at work. Meanwhile, intense media censorship has driven journalists to self-censorship out of fear of retaliation.
The report also underscores the forced return of 1.9 million Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan, and the recent deportation of 81 Afghan asylum seekers from Germany, calling these actions part of a broader “crackdown on migrants.” Many of the deported had lived abroad for years and now face persecution, homelessness, and deprivation.
Simultaneously, international aid cuts—especially the reduction of U.S. humanitarian assistance, which once accounted for 40% of Afghanistan’s aid—have led to the closure of hundreds of health centers, worsening child malnutrition, and the collapse of vital educational programs for girls. According to the UN, more than 23 million people in Afghanistan now rely on food aid.
Human Rights Watch criticized the global community’s four-year failure to act and called on the UN Human Rights Council to establish an independent international accountability mechanism in its September session. It also urged the European Union to include support for such a mechanism in its upcoming annual resolution.
