By John J. Metzler, March 17, 2025The darkening rule of the Taliban regime over Afghanistan continues to dim prospects for Women’s rights as well as any chances for the war-torn country to overcome an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. Currently more than 50 percent of the population, some 23 million people in this South Asian land, require humanitarian assistance and that aid is now decreasing.
Against the glaring images of Afghanistan’s misrule, massive ongoing gender discrimination and corrupt government, the UN Security Council again challenged the Taliban authorities to reverse human rights offenses which dramatically grew after President Joe Biden’s shameful and shambolic military withdrawal in 2021.
In a gripping Security Council briefing by the UN’s special representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva recalled that, “Afghans increasingly resent the intrusions on their private lives by the de facto authorities. They fear Afghanistan’s further isolation from the rest of the world.”
She stressed, “After three and a half years under Taliban rule, they have indeed welcomed an absence of conflict, and greater stability and freedom of movement, at least for the male population. But this is not a peace in which they can live in dignity with their human rights respected and with confidence in a stable future.”
Ms. Otunbayeva conceded, “On human rights, there has been no easing of the significant restrictions on women, despite global appeals and appeals by many Afghans.”
“Turning to the security situation, the de facto authorities continue to exert full control over the country, with a few exceptions.” The term de facto authorities, remains a UN euphemism from the Taliban regime who seized Kabul in 2021 after two decades of entrenched conflict.
Significantly, an Afghan voice from exile lawyer Azadah Raz Mohammad, Co-Founder of the Ham Diley Campaign, put the matter into chilling perspective; “In 2021, the Taliban tried to sell themselves to the international community as a reformed group, promising to respect human rights, including women’s rights, a lie the international community was too quick to believe.”
She recalled, “Afghan women warned that, given the chance, the Taliban would destroy every gain they had fought for since their brutal rule in the 1990’s. Now, their fears have become reality: Through at least 126 brutally enforced decrees, the Taliban have deprived Afghan women and girls of their most fundamental rights, education, employment, movement, assembly, speech and life free from violence.”
Most members of the Council were quick to condemn the Islamic fundamentalist rule in a country long wracked by violence. The French representative stated the challenge succinctly; The regime has placed gender-based persecution and violence against women at the heart of its political identity. This not only harms women, he stressed: “By erasing half of the population from public life, the Taliban are crushing any prospect of development and justice for Afghanistan.”
American Acting Amb.Dorothy Shea put the matter into wider context warning, “The security threat emanating from Afghanistan is a continuing driver of regional instability…We are also concerned about the transnational threat posed by ISIS-K.”
Amb. Shea added, “The Taliban must ensure Afghanistan can never again be used as a safe haven for terrorist groups to threaten the security of the United States, our allies, or any country.”
Denmark’s Amb. Christina Markus Lassen, currently serving as Council President for March, implored, “We urge the Taliban to immediately reverse all of their discriminatory policies.”
The rich irony of this Council meeting was that it coincided with the Commission on the Status of Women Summit at UN Headquarters focused on women’s rights. But what of the Taliban’s systemic and entrenched gender discrimination?
Russia however offered a counter vision stating, “there is no other game in town aside from pragmatic cooperation with the Taliban.” Moscow’s delegate called for “a patient dialogue” with the de facto authorities, without any attempts to impose outside visions or priorities.
Despite the dire humanitarian situation there are some glimmers, the World Bank is slated to provide an additional $240 million to support the Afghan health sector until November 2026.
Yet the rise in Afghanistan’s opium prices, reflecting the country’s traditional narcotics trade, has soared. A UN Office on Drugs report warns, “One kilo of opium cost $750 last year, up from $75 just three years ago, compensating sellers for the loss in overall production and poppy fields.”
The Report cautions that opium cultivation represented, “roughly 23 to 29 per cent of the country’s economy in 2023.” Trans-national crime syndicates profit from the lucrative trade.
Afghanistan’s tragic legacy of conflict, gender oppression and misrule continues. As Azadah Ram Mohammad stressed, “Hold the Taliban accountable!”
John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of Divided Dynamism the Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China (2014). [See pre-2011 Archives]
