Women’s protests against the Taliban’s Islamist gender terror are fading. Since mid-September, demonstrations in Kabul, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, and other cities have all but disappeared. It is as if the Taliban never really left Afghan women alone during the last 20 years.
Silencing Urban Voices
Initially, women braved the streets to demand their right to work, freedom of movement, and protection against Sharia diktats. At first tolerated, the protests quickly provoked Taliban retaliation. Armed fighters used gunfire, whips, and intimidation to crush demonstrations. By 11 September, the symbolic 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Taliban made their message clear: women were to submit without resistance.
Soon after, a staged counter-protest emerged. A group of women in full-body coverings were marched to Kabul University under Taliban escort, paraded as supporters of strict Sharia. Media were barred from speaking to them independently, and once the spectacle ended, the women were whisked away—silenced props in the Taliban’s propaganda machine.
Brutal Realities
The façade of moderation collapsed within days of the takeover. On 14 August, just before Kabul fell, a woman in Takhar Province was shot dead for not covering her face. That same day, advertisements depicting brides were defaced, their images hastily painted over.
The Taliban’s Cultural Commission ordered imams and mullahs to supply lists of girls over 15 and widows under 45 for forced marriage to fighters. Dowry regulations are being imposed, with reports of women taken to Waziristan for conversion and “reintegration.”
The result is a chilling replay of the 1990s: honour killings, rape, beatings, lashings, acid attacks, forced marriages, prostitution, and the barter of women to settle disputes. Violence against women has become an entrenched weapon of war.
Rural Women: The Forgotten Majority
While urban women briefly tasted freedom over the past two decades, rural women—who make up 76% of Afghanistan’s female population—have remained trapped in an unbroken cycle of oppression.
According to a Brookings report, these women rarely appeared in public even during the US-led occupation. Girls were excluded from schools, women from workplaces, and widows left destitute when male relatives were killed in conflict. In many areas, women’s participation was tolerated only for labour-intensive tasks like poppy cultivation and opium harvesting.
The Taliban’s return has sealed their fate. Rural Afghan women continue to face forced marriages, denial of healthcare, and total dependence on male permission for basic life decisions.
A Society Against Its Women
A UN study underscores how deeply ingrained conservatism remains:
- Only 15% of Afghan men believe women should be allowed to work after marriage.
- 80% of Afghan women experience domestic violence.
- 50% of imprisoned women and 95% of incarcerated girls are jailed for “moral crimes,” often for fleeing abuse or defending themselves against violent husbands.
Even without Taliban diktats, Afghan society’s patriarchal structure has ensured systemic repression. With the Taliban back in control, these attitudes are weaponised into law.
Back to the 1990s
The Brookings report warns that Taliban rule is not uniform but depends on local commanders. Yet across provinces, the same brutal patterns are emerging: whipping for “immorality,” stoning for adultery, execution for defiance, and punishment for failing to wear a burqa.
Afghanistan today is reliving its darkest past. The Taliban’s “gender terror” has returned in full force, extinguishing decades of fragile progress and condemning women once again to invisibility, fear, and violence.