Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: ERBG-LAW-1, MARR-PRACTICE-1

"Even girls who finish their education have few prospects; the Taliban have banned women from most jobs, and opportunities to go abroad are scarce. Reports of suicidal thoughts, self-harm and rates of underage marriage are on the rise, according to teachers and humanitarian organizations" (para 9).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: AFE-LAW-1

"Now 18, Ayesha [Afghan girl] once dreamed of studying psychology at university. The Taliban ended that dream when they banned formal education for girls beyond sixth grade in 2022" (para 3). "Clandestine schools were once seen as a stopgap, a way for girls to keep up with their education until the Taliban were gone. But five years after the Taliban’s return to power, nearly 2.5 million Afghan girls have been locked out of secondary school" (para 5). "During their first rule, between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban banned both primary and secondary education for girls, arguing that secular schools were contrary to their hard-line vision of Islam. They said it...more

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: SEGI-PRACTICE-1

"Leading women's rights campaigner and Labour peer Baroness Helena Kennedy said Britain should put pressure on allies such as India and Qatar, who maintain contact with the Taliban. She told Radio 4's Today programme: 'What is happening is gender apartheid. The extremes against women are extraordinary" (para 19-20).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: MARR-LAW-1

"Since the terror group seized Afghanistan in 2021, Taliban members have been forcibly marrying young girls, taking them away from their family. Earlier this year, the Taliban legalised child marriage with the consent of a male relative. Afghanistan has no clear legal minimum age for marriage. The country has a traditional practice called 'baad', which sees families hand over their young daughters to settle disputes and debts" (para 12-14).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: RISW-PRACTICE-2

"August 2026 marks five years since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. Since then, they have built and continue to consolidate a system of gender control that is rapidly narrowing women’s opportunities, prospects and hopes for a dignified future: a dense web of decrees has institutionalized restrictions on women’s rights; essential services still available to women are shrinking; and sweeping, ever-expanding controls on women’s freedom of movement are deepening their isolation" (p 4). "The gap between women’s lives today and what they expected before August 2021 is wide and growing. In the April–May 2026 telesurveys, 65 per cent of women said their lives had turned out worse than they...more

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: WAM-LAW-1

"... Pushed out of public life and increasingly absent from television and radio, women are also being made less visible. 20 A generation of girls is growing up with fewer visible models of a woman’s life beyond the home, narrowing not only what they may do but also what they can imagine wanting" (p 12).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: MARR-LAW-1

"... In 2025, 17 per cent of women surveyed identified harmful social norms – including child and forced marriage – as barriers to achieving their goals. Among separated or divorced women, that figure rose to 31 per cent" (p 14). This information indicates the existence of a law which allows child marriages to happen in Afghanistan under the Taliban (MR-CODER COMMENT).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: IIP-LAW-1

"According to the UN report infographic published on page 6, Afghan women’s lives have become increasingly confined to their homes. The typical Afghan woman leaves home only once or twice a month, while the typical man leaves home every day. About 52% of women leave home twice a month or less, compared with 96% of men who leave home daily. The infographic also reports that 90% of women need permission from a male family member before leaving home, 75% feel unsafe without a male guardian, 66% limit what they say in public, and 56% avoid public places such as markets and health facilities" (p 6). This information indicates the existence...more

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: AFE-LAW-1

"The systemic erasure of women from public life, including their exclusion from higher education and employment, removes the visible role models that show what is possible and narrows what Afghan women and girls can imagine for their own futures…" (p 4). "According to the UN report infographic published on page 6, educational opportunities for Afghan women and girls have continued to shrink since the Taliban takeover. Women and girls have been barred from education beyond grade six since 2021. In 2024, 76% of women reported reduced access to education since the Taliban takeover. In 2025, 56% reported that their access had declined even further during the previous year, and in...more

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: SUICIDE-DATA-1

"This tightening chokehold [referring to the laws issued by the Taliban which suppress women] has made Afghanistan one of the few countries in the world where women’s suicide rates exceed men’s (globally, they are almost twice as common among males), with 75% to 80% of recorded suicide cases and attempts being women and girls" (para 6).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: RCDW-LAW-2

"The Taliban did not just ban women from schools, impose the burqa and outlaw smartphones. The Taliban built a system that enslaves nearly half the country’s population, or according to outdated statistics: 21,701,532 women and girls" (para 1).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: DV-LAW-1

"Or the law [issued by the Taliban] that legitimises domestic violence under the label of 'corrective beating', which gives a husband the right to beat his wife, as long as he does not cause fractures or serious injuries" (para 4).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-2, DV-PRACTICE-2

"The Taliban also made sure to restrict the right to request divorce and shut down most shelters for abused women. If a girl or woman tries to escape this tragedy, the 'morality police' pursue her" (para 5).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: DACH-PRACTICE-2

"Since the Taliban’s informal birth-control ban began spreading across Afghanistan in 2023, the country’s reproductive health system has gone into freefall. Contraceptives have disappeared, clinics have closed and complications are going untreated. The ban was never formally announced, but by early 2023, doctors and midwives in multiple provinces reported the same pattern: supplies arriving late, then in smaller quantities and then not at all. In interviews with the Guardian and Zan Times, women from seven provinces have explained the same traumas: pregnancies they cannot prevent, miscarriages they cannot treat and violence they cannot escape" (para 3-5). "Now she is pregnant again. Her local clinic no longer offers contraceptives and her...more

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: DACH-PRACTICE-1

"Since the Taliban’s informal birth-control ban began spreading across Afghanistan in 2023, the country’s reproductive health system has gone into freefall. Contraceptives have disappeared, clinics have closed and complications are going untreated. The ban was never formally announced, but by early 2023, doctors and midwives in multiple provinces reported the same pattern: supplies arriving late, then in smaller quantities and then not at all. In interviews with the Guardian and Zan Times, women from seven provinces have explained the same traumas: pregnancies they cannot prevent, miscarriages they cannot treat and violence they cannot escape" (para 3-5). "Now she is pregnant again. Her local clinic no longer offers contraceptives and her...more