Bennett Warns Afghan Women Face Growing Costs From Rights Restrictions as Taliban Grip Tightens

Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, has issued a stark warning that the Taliban’s escalating restrictions on Afghan women and girls are exacting a mounting toll not only in terms of lost freedoms, but through deepening social fragmentation, economic marginalization, and widespread psychological distress.

Speaking on August 17, Bennett reaffirmed that Afghan women and girls must be fully restored to their fundamental rights, including unimpeded access to education and employment, freedom of movement and expression, and the right to participate meaningfully in all spheres of public and political life. He emphasized that these are not privileges to be negotiated, but entitlements enshrined in international human rights law.

In a direct message to Afghan women, Bennett declared: “You are not alone. We have not forgotten you.” His words sought to counter the growing sense of isolation many women feel as their world shrinks under ever-tightening decrees.

Bennett revealed that he has met with numerous Afghan women who, despite immense personal risk, continue to advocate for their rights and urgently seek the international community’s sustained attention and action. He described their courage, resilience, and unyielding determination as one of his primary motivations for persisting in his mandate on Afghanistan even as global attention wanes and donor fatigue sets in.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, the regime has systematically dismantled two decades of gains for Afghan women. Girls are barred from secondary education beyond Grade 6, and women have been excluded from universities effectively ending formal higher education for half the population. Employment restrictions have forced countless women out of government jobs, NGOs, and private-sector roles, while travel bans require a male guardian for any journey exceeding 72 kilometers, severely curtailing mobility and access to healthcare.

Bennett warned that the restrictions now permeate the most mundane aspects of daily life. Women are prohibited from entering parks, gyms, public baths, and many recreational spaces. They are required to cover fully in public, and their voices are effectively silenced in mixed-gender settings. This systematic erasure, Bennett noted, is not merely an inconvenience it is a form of structural violence that induces chronic anxiety, depression, and a pervasive sense of hopelessness, particularly among younger women who have never known a different reality.

The UN expert voiced particular alarm over the lost potential of an entire generation of Afghan girls and women many of whom, just five years ago, dreamed of becoming doctors, engineers, teachers, and leaders. Today, those aspirations remain locked behind decrees that offer no timeline for reversal. Bennett warned that the cumulative effect of this exclusion risks creating a “lost decade” for Afghan society, with long-term consequences for governance, public health, and social cohesion.

UN agencies and international human rights organizations have repeatedly condemned the policies, urging the Taliban to immediately reverse all edicts against women and girls. They have also stressed that barring women from education and the workforce is not only a moral failure but an economic catastrophe depriving Afghanistan of skilled professionals, hindering development aid, and deepening the country’s humanitarian crisis, where over two-thirds of the population now depend on aid to survive.

Bennett’s latest remarks came just days after the fifth anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover on August 15, 2021 a grim milestone that has passed with no meaningful policy shift. Five years on, the regime shows no sign of softening its stance, and Afghan women remain among the most legally restricted populations in modern history.

Yet, in the face of this bleak landscape, Bennett drew strength from the women he continues to meet. “Their resilience is not passive endurance it is active, creative, and defiant,” he said. “They remind me every day why this work matters, and why the international community must not look away.”

He concluded by reiterating that the fight for Afghan women’s rights is far from over, and that accountability through sanctions, legal mechanisms, and sustained diplomatic pressure remains essential. For now, he said, the world owes Afghan women not just sympathy, but solidarity and tangible action.

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