“People in Afghanistan are divided into four categories. Minorities and women fall into the fourth.”

Women in Afghanistan face very different challenges than women in Europe. We wanted to learn more about women in Afghanistan and their lives. To do so, we spoke with Christina Ihle, Managing Director of the Afghan Women’s Association (Afghanischer Frauenverein e.V.) in Hamburg.

While Fondsfrauen focuses on career opportunities for women in Europe, women in Afghanistan face entirely different challenges. We spoke with Christina Ihle, Managing Director of the Afghan Women’s Association in Hamburg, which Fondsfrauen supports.S

Ms. Ihle, how are women in Afghanistan currently?

Not well. Since the Taliban took power on August 15, 2021, the government has issued over 100 decrees restricting the rights of women and girls. At the same time, a severe humanitarian crisis has developed rapidly. Today, around 23 million people in Afghanistan depend on survival aid, out of a population of about 49.5 million. Both factors have devastating consequences for women’s lives.S

What restrictions do women and girls face in concrete terms?

Girls are only allowed to attend primary school (grades 1 to 6). After that, they cannot pursue further education or vocational training, nor can they work. This removes future prospects for 50% of the population and deprives many families of income. Before the Taliban, many women worked in government offices or banks and supported extended families with their salaries.

So women contributed to family income?

Yes. Afghan society is structured differently. The collective comes before the individual. Those who earn an income support the extended family. The employment ban for women has pushed many families into extreme poverty. Today, very few women can work, with limited exceptions in healthcare and primary education. Women have largely been excluded from public life. Many women can only leave their homes accompanied by a male relative. For many official matters, they need a male representative. The Taliban justify this through a radical interpretation of Sharia and claims about women’s safety in public spaces.

How does the population view these decrees?

A UN Women study from August 2025, surveying 2,000 people in urban and rural areas, shows that 92% oppose the education ban. Many men argue, even on religious grounds, that education is a sacred duty outlined in the Quran and should apply to women as well. Urban populations have seen over the past 20 years how educated women contribute to society: fewer children, better child health, higher school attendance, and additional family income. By 2021, a middle class had emerged in cities. After the Taliban takeover and employment ban, this middle class largely disappeared.

DNATO was present in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021, a full 20 years. Was it not possible during that time to build stable structures that could sustainably secure essential rights for women, such as education, asset building, and self-determination?

Unfortunately not, and after 20 years, that is truly remarkable. Following the Taliban’s takeover, it became clear that even after two decades, 75% of Afghanistan’s national budget was financed internationally, including the civil service, many government agencies, and the entire healthcare system. NATO countries failed over 20 years to establish independent and sustainable structures. The Enquete Commission of the German Bundestag published a very candid report on this. Its key conclusion was that Germany, as a NATO partner, felt obliged to participate in Afghanistan because it had not supported the Iraq War. As an ally, it fully backed the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. Accordingly, efforts quickly focused on the U.S. mission “Enduring Freedom,” aimed at preventing terrorist violence. Promoting and sustainably establishing women’s rights was often more of a public justification for the presence in the country. However, the fight against radical groups such as the Taliban did not succeed. In some regions, they were able to retain up to 50% of power. Therefore, the country was never truly stabilized, not even during the 20 years of NATO presence

What was NATO able to achieve for women and girls during those 20 years?

At least in urban areas, a great deal was achieved for girls and women. They were integrated into the healthcare and education systems, had access to schools and universities, and were able to work. However, this progress was largely limited to cities and hardly reached rural areas. In the countryside, life remained very traditional. In many of the regions where we operated, women continued to wear burqas even during the NATO years and were largely confined to domestic and agricultural work.

What happened after August 15, 2021?

Immediately after taking power, the Taliban regime replaced the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, established during the NATO period, with a Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Over time, more than 100 decrees were issued that deliberately restrict the rights of girls and women. Most recently, in January 2026, a new penal code was introduced that divides people in Afghanistan into four legal categories: religious leaders come first, followed by civil servants and artisans. Ethnic minorities and women fall into the fourth category. For the same offense, punishments vary depending on the category. Corporal punishment is no longer prohibited in Afghanistan, particularly against women. This is extremely alarming.

How are these decrees implemented in practice?

Fortunately, implementation still varies significantly by region. However, a nationwide morality police has been established and is becoming increasingly present, strictly punishing violations of the imposed rules. In addition, the Taliban have introduced a highly effective principle: in cases of misconduct, it is not the women themselves who are punished, but their male family heads, for example if a woman is not dressed “appropriately.” No woman wants her husband, father, or brother to be punished because of her. As a result, women live in constant fear of making a mistake, and their male relatives share that fear.

What other forms of discrimination do women face, aside from being cut off from education and being subject to strict moral codes?

Women are not supposed to speak in public. For example, they are not allowed to give lectures. In 2025, the Taliban even attempted to shut down the internet. When the economy, especially the financial and banking system, threatened to collapse after just two days without internet access, it was switched back on. However, social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter are no longer usable in Afghanistan, and online communication is monitored. This significantly limits how people, especially women, can express themselves. Some women still manage to post and write, but it is extremely difficult and dangerous.

Officially, listening to music or dancing is also prohibited in Afghanistan. This applies to both men and women. How strictly these bans are enforced varies greatly by region, meaning the new morality laws are not yet consistently implemented everywhere, but they do exist.

How did it happen that women’s rights were reduced so drastically all at once? What can women in Afghanistan do about it? In Iran, for example, women have protested and taken to the streets. What is the situation like in Afghanistan?

Street protests are a very Western form of protest. They are effective here because politicians depend on voter approval. In autocratic systems, this rarely works. Street protests are also primarily an urban form of resistance. Iran is a highly urbanized country, whereas Afghanistan is about 80% rural. In Afghan cities, there were indeed protest marches by students and young women when universities were closed in 2022. However, the punishments for protesters are draconian. As a result, women in Afghanistan tend to resist more through quiet actions than through words, and in strong solidarity with one another. For example, many women teach older girls in their homes. There are also female entrepreneurs who successfully develop business ideas together with other women in private. All of them take great risks, as the intelligence services are omnipresent.

Is it possible to negotiate with Taliban representatives?

This is most effectively done by village elders at the regional level. It is important to understand that Afghan society remains patriarchal. Decision-making power in a village lies with councils of elders composed entirely of men, who also negotiate with the Taliban. For example, between 2021 and 2022, these councils managed to negotiate in eight provinces that girls could continue attending school up to grade 12. Unfortunately, this was halted by the country’s supreme leader, the Emir, on December 24, 2022. Nevertheless, it shows that it is sometimes possible to expand opportunities for girls and women through local negotiations with the Taliban. In March 2024, for instance, some medical training institutes were suddenly reopened to women due to a severe shortage of skilled workers in hospitals. However, this achievement was again reversed nationwide after two semesters. Still, when one window closes, another often opens, and women and girls in Afghanistan show great creativity and patience in making the most of these opportunities. This is exhausting and often frustrating, but it reflects their ongoing commitment to a better, more equal future.

Do Afghan women at least have authority within the household?

Yes, traditionally women hold a highly respected role within the Afghan family. The older a woman is, the more respect she receives, along with greater influence in decision-making. The younger a woman or girl is, the more difficult her situation tends to be.

Can girls at least continue their education online?

Only about 20% of Afghanistan’s population lives in cities, while 80% live in rural areas. In cities, electricity and internet access are available, but in rural areas they often are not. This makes online learning at home very challenging for many Afghan girls. However, there are excellent online academies that offer the Afghan school curriculum for grades 7 to 12 through video lessons in Dari and Pashto, including midterm and final exams. This allows Afghan girls to continue learning from home and obtain internationally recognized school qualifications. But they need electricity, internet access, and a mobile device to do so.

What is the situation regarding women’s healthcare?

It is concerning. In Afghanistan, women are only allowed to be treated medically by other women. If women are not permitted to study, there will be a shortage of trained female medical professionals. We are already seeing this in our nine mother-and-child clinics. It is very difficult to find qualified female doctors and midwives, and it becomes more difficult each year. A similar issue exists in education: girls in primary schools are only allowed to be taught by female teachers, and well-trained staff are becoming increasingly scarce.

How does your organization, the Afghan Women’s Association based in Hamburg, operate in Afghanistan? That seems very challenging.

Our office in Hamburg is relatively small, with eight staff members and 12 highly committed volunteers. It coordinates donations, funding management, project planning, monitoring, and especially the controlling and finances of our projects in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, however, we have over 350 local colleagues, 60% of whom are women. They carry out the most important and courageous part of our work: the reliable implementation of projects on the ground. We are very proud of each and every one of them. Some have been working with us for 30 years, and they all take significant risks to carry out these projects. From 6 a.m. to 1 p.m., part of our Hamburg office is fully engaged with Afghanistan via email and phone, coordinating field operations and daily tasks. After 1 p.m., we focus on our work in Germany. About two months each year, we travel to Afghanistan ourselves in different team constellations. This is crucial for planning next steps based on rapidly changing local realities, and many issues are best resolved in person.

How can women in Afghanistan build wealth? Can they, for example, open a bank account?

Women can hardly act independently anymore. To open a bank account, they need the signature of a male relative. In many regions, women are also not allowed to inherit, even though this is officially permitted by the Taliban government. Because women are rarely heard in administrative offices when alone, it has become very difficult for them to build, manage, or claim assets if they are denied them by others.

There is also the system of bride price in Afghanistan, which varies depending on one of the country’s 54 ethnic groups. For a marriage, the groom’s family often has to pay large sums. The bride’s family may receive not only cash but also goods such as a refrigerator or fabrics as part of the dowry. This system has downsides: the poorer a family is, the earlier it may feel forced to marry off one of its daughters to support the extended family, sometimes as young as 11 to 13 in rural areas. Because young men often cannot afford the bride price, very young girls are sometimes married to much older men, with all the associated risks.

Afghan women are also mothers. Do they raise their sons to be misogynistic? Where does this attitude come from?

It is important not to equate the Afghan population with the radical Islamist Taliban and their view of women. Many of the radical Taliban were trained in Pakistan in the 1990s. In those training camps, there were no women. As a result, their perception of women became highly distorted and forms the basis of their ideology.

Why don’t men in Afghanistan help their wives live more freely? Perhaps they love their wives or have daughters they want to see live well.

Of course they do. I do not know a single father in Afghanistan who does not want the best for his daughters and wife and who does not do everything he can to improve their lives. According to a UN Women study, over 88% of surveyed men, even in very remote rural areas, want education and training for their daughters and want to make life easier for their wives. We see this every day in our five schools and nine clinics. It is moving to see what fathers endure to enable their daughters to attend at least the six years of primary school available and to protect and support their wives. However, this is not the kind of story that makes headlines, which is why little is heard about it in Germany.

How do partnerships and marriages function in Afghanistan?

Marriages in Afghanistan are usually arranged by the families, similar to India, often agreed upon many years in advance until the children reach marriageable age. As a result, many couples have known each other since childhood. This creates a different relationship dynamic, focused on the collective, on supporting the nuclear and extended family as the most important and protective social unit. In such a challenging environment, it is very difficult to survive as an individual. People depend on one another. Couples therefore try to grow into a strong team to manage the many challenges of daily life. I know many Afghan marriages where this works wonderfully and with deep mutual love. The extended family plays an important supportive role and helps mediate conflicts. Couples are therefore not left alone with their problems, as is sometimes the case here, but are ideally supported by their families.

What is the greatest everyday wish of an Afghan woman? What would noticeably improve her life?

When asked, most respondents, both women and men, say peace. In February 2026, Pakistan declared war on Afghanistan. Since then, there have been repeated clashes and drone attacks. Most recently, more than 250 people were killed in an attack on a clinic in Kabul. Even during the NATO years, life in rural areas often resembled a state of war. In our schools in Kunduz and Ghazni, we had to repair bullet holes every year, even during NATO presence. Peace and security for themselves and their families are therefore among women’s greatest wishes.

Right after that comes the desire for education, vocational training, and greater participation in decisions that affect their own lives. Girls and women want to be able to pursue a profession, as this also means building economic independence. Those who are economically independent gain more respect and a stronger voice within their families and communities. A profession and income are key drivers of greater equality, not only in Afghanistan but everywhere.

What does your support for Afghan women look like? How can you help them?

We run 22 self-help projects in Afghanistan, supporting more than 250,000 people in total, 80% of whom are women and children. For example, we have been operating five self-built schools for many years, where over 5,000 children are taught, 3,000 of them girls.

In addition, we run nine mother-and-child clinics, primarily in rural areas. There is a significant need, especially since many international aid organizations have left Afghanistan. In March 2025, all U.S. aid to Afghanistan was also cut, leading to the closure of 420 clinics and 300 nutrition centers. As a result, over 14 million people in Afghanistan no longer have access to medical care. Maternal and child mortality rates have risen dramatically. Hardly any woman can rely on medical assistance during childbirth. Mortality among children aged zero to five has also increased. Every second child in Afghanistan suffers from stunted growth due to malnutrition, and over three million people are acutely malnourished.

Are you allowed to operate in the country?

Everything we do, every single project, must be registered with the relevant ministries, and we must report on implementation every six months. Beyond that, our main partners are the village communities where we have often been working for 30 years. We only operate where communities apply for one of our projects and are willing to actively contribute, for example by providing land, labor, or time for project committees we establish in the villages. Because we involve communities in every step, they see the projects as their own, support and protect them, and also negotiate with local Taliban representatives. As long as we have the trust and support of the communities, we are able to operate effectively and implement our projects independently, without having to pay levies.

Can a European woman travel to Afghanistan?

The German Federal Foreign Office advises against travel to Afghanistan, and it is indeed not easy. A visa is required, and it is recommended to always travel accompanied by Afghan locals. For aid organization staff, this is standard. We always travel with our Afghan colleagues to project sites and dress according to local customs. Travel routes must be shared in advance with the Ministry of Interior and are strictly monitored. Occasionally, we encounter guided tourist groups that visit the country’s sights under very strict conditions. Promoting tourism in Afghanistan is one of the Taliban’s strategic long-term goals.

Thank you very much for these deep insights into the lives of Afghan women, and best of luck with your continued work!

Contact: www.afghanischer-frauenverein.de

Foto: Pexels / Faruk Tokluoğlu

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