Gender alert1: Women’s rights in Afghanistan: Where are we now?

The purpose of this Gender Alert is to document and analyze the impact of the rapidly evolving Afghan context on women’s rights and gender equality. This Alert focuses on developments since the Taliban take-over of Kabul on 15 August 2021, shedding light on the impact of the current contextual dynamics on the rights of women and girls. The brief focuses on drawing out the gender trends across key thematic areas—work, education, health care, protection, freedom of movement, participa¬tion in public and political life—analyzing how changing political dynamics are impacting gender equality. Overall, the Gender Alert finds a concerning and rapid shift to normalizing discriminatory gender norms and a general curtailment of Afghan women and girls’ fundamental rights and freedoms.