Three And a Half Years Under the Taliban Rule: Life in Afghanistan from Women’s Perspective

Three and a half years have passed since Afghanistan’s takeover by the Taliban. Even before the withdrawal of NATO allies, Afghanistan was among the poorest countries in the world with a high dependency on foreign aid. After the events in August 2021 followed by a significant loss of most international aid and the Taliban’s diplomatic isolation, the situation in the country became much worse. Eight Afghan female students (the informants’ names were changed to ensure their anonymity) studying in Italy agreed to share their perspective on the ongoing Afghanistan crisis, and to explain, what is the reason behind the Taliban takeover. 

The Role of Religion in Afghanistan: Sunni vs Shia

To better understand the Afghanistan crisis and the Taliban rule, it is essential to cover the fundamental role Islam plays in Afghan society. Everyone knows that Afghanistan is a Muslim country, but not all Muslims are treated equally. There is a great disunity within the Islamic community (ummah). Moreover, Islam is practiced differently in Afghanistan than in any other part of the world. More than 99 percent of Afghanistan’s population is Muslim with the majority practicing Sunni Islam, while only around 10 percent are Shias.[1]

 Between these two religious groups there has always been a disagreement since they belong to different schools of thought and practice Islam differently. Afghan Sunnis mostly belong to the Hanafi School which is the oldest of the four schools of interpretation. It stresses the importance of belief over practice. In other words, Hanafism suggests that belief in Islam is more important than adhering to practices. In addition, more attention is given to practical devotion than to strict adherence to practice while the Quran is allowed to be read in languages other than Arabic (Gunn 2003: 396). It is important to note that the Islamic School of Law has a wider meaning than law. It includes all aspects of life from religious practices such as prayer and fasting to criminal law provisions such as crimes and punishments. Sunni believers refer to any religious leader as an Imam with no clerical authority when it comes to the interpretation of the Quran and God’s will. Meanwhile, Shia Muslims feel that the blood relatives of the Prophet continued to have special powers in relation to interpreting God’s will and only they can be referred as Imams who are eligible to interpret the Quran legitimately. They still wait for the 12th Imam to return and restore the Shia to prominence.[2] 

The two main sects within Islam, Sunni and Shia, have lived alongside each other in relative peace for most of history. However, starting in the late 20th century, the split deepened, exploding into violence in many parts of the Middle East as extreme brands of Sunni and Shia Islam battle for both religious and political supremacy.[3]

Even though, almost all Pashtuns and other ethnic groups who joined the Taliban are Sunni, the Taliban’s interpretation of Hanafi Sunni thought is a radical offshoot and distinct from original Hanafism. It is called Deobandism and includes strict, literal interpretation of the Quran and the Sunnah, strict adherence to the Taqlid[4], and anti-colonial, anti-modern components. 

The anti-modern trends in Deobandi belief are evident in the Taliban’s dress requirements (for both men and women), and their denial of education to female citizens. Further, the Taliban has used strict, literal interpretation of the Quran to justify brutal punishments for offenses against their law. These ranged from public executions to amputations. Based on Deobandism, a Muslim prioritizes loyalty to his religion over his state. This lack of respect for state authority is evident across the insurgency, not only within the Taliban group. The anti-colonial feelings may have affected the anti-Western sentiment that the Taliban and other insurgent groups have today. 

Talking about women’s rights in Afghanistan, the Taliban often claims that its government is guided by Islamic law (Sharia) and that all the decisions are made within the framework of Sharia. However, it does not say that its interpretation of Sharia is far different from the original source. In other words, the Taliban has its own version of Sharia in mind which does not even exist. 

All eight informants unanimously agreed that the Taliban created their own ideology mendaciously claiming that it is based on Sharia law: “Taliban are terrorists. They are terrorists. I don’t know what Sharia is, but they make the rules based on their interests and they just put a name of Sharia on it. For example, in Taliban rules, Shia as people are not Muslims and they are allowed to kill us. But what the hell is this. So, I don’t agree with this. I don’t agree in many ways. But I know that Islamic rules are different. Even there are some leaders of Taliban that set this rule in Afghanistan that girls shouldn’t enrol to university and girls are not allowed to study more than 6th grade, their girls and women are in the foreign countries, and they are studying at the universities, and everything is okay. But in Afghanistan they set some rules and just put a name of Sharia.” (Zargul, 33 years old) 

“Some time ago I was a religious person, I really studied and read a lot of religious books. This is not what Taliban is saying. It is different. But yes, Taliban claim that they are implementing pure Islam, but I don’t know how they created this ideology, even Saudi Arabia doesn’t have like Taliban restriction on women. Even Iran doesn’t have Taliban restriction. You know, education, job, or going out of the house is not prohibited for women. They are unique in their perspective [laughing].” (Mina, 33 years old)

“In my opinion, first they should know what exactly Sharia says, or the Islamic laws. And it came again from this bad education system, the people don’t have this awareness, they use the wrong sources and try to report it in a different way, in the wrong way. But it is not like that. For example, they say that based on Sharia, the women don’t have the right to go outside of their house. But it is not mentioned anywhere. They just rely on other sources which are not acceptable, are not correct. We can prove it, but they are not the kind of people that we could start a discussion or debate with. Their governance is forceful and there is no opportunity to discuss with them. It is not correct what they are saying, we have a lot of evidence and various sources that reject their hypothesis. In sharia or Islam, I mean in the correct way that we have, there are a lot of rights for women. But Taliban are not following that.” (Shabana, 26 years old) 

While talking about Western media representation of the Taliban takeover, due to usually negative portrayal of Islam as a deeply anti-women religion, many people are blaming the ongoing situation in Afghanistan on this faith. For decades Islam has been identified as a terrorist threat by using the widespread myth of Muslim violence. The main role in this accusation has been playing Western mainstream media. 

As Najiba shared, many people mistakenly mix religion with politics which makes them indifferent to the suffering of Afghan women: “…everybody is blaming the situation of Afghanistan on religion. Not religion, it is politics. They are turning this into religious situation, saying: “If you were not Muslim, it wouldn’t happen to you”. It’s not because of Muslims. So, if you watch somebody die, just because they are Muslim, would you not care if somebody is just Muslim? A lot of feminist organizations are not interested in situations of Afghan women because of their religion and race.” (Najiba, 24 years old) 

Afghanistan Today: What We Already Know vs The Hidden Reality

Afghanistan today is facing rapid economic decline, inflation, drought, hunger and risk of malnutrition, an increase in poverty rate both in urban and rural areas, a near-collapse of the national public health system, a stifling of the media and civil society sectors, and almost-total exclusion of half the population – women and girls – from public life. Based on 2024 data, 23.7 million people – more than half of the population – required humanitarian assistance, the fourth largest number of people facing severe hunger and food shortages. Afghanistan is among the top “hunger hotspots” alongside Palestine, Yemen, Haiti, and Syria.[5] 

Frequent natural disasters exacerbate the situation even more with earthquakes, floods, and landslides regularly devastating the country. Thousands of people face harsh weather conditions for a third winter, being left without permanent housing or proper access to water, food, and sanitation. Many schools were destroyed and have not been rebuilt. Once at the forefront of international aid and media coverage, it seems that Afghanistan today is left unnoticed with the global focus being shifted toward the victims of wars in Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine. The multiple crises plaguing the country do not get enough attention from the international media, and yet they persist.Recently, the Taliban government said that it is going to close all national and foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) employing women in Afghanistan[6]. 

The country’s Ministry of Economy even warned the international community that failure to comply with the latest order would lead to NGOs losing their license to operate in Afghanistan. Such a decision was explained by NGOs allegedly not adhering to the administration’s interpretation of the Islamic dress code for women. Taliban authorities not only have banned post-primary education for girls and women, restricted employment, but even blocked access to parks and other public places. In the beginning, the group claimed that the ban on post-primary education was just a “temporary suspension” that would be resolved after the establishment of a safe environment for girls to attend school, but no changes have been made so far.The country is suffering from great economic instability, about 85 percent of Afghans live on less than one dollar a day[7]which is below the International Poverty Line. 

Since women are not allowed to work, those households where there are no male family members are struggling the most.Male dominance is present in every sphere of life. 

There are great problems in the health sector with an increasing number of patients and not enough medical staff: “The clinics run based on lots and lots of restrictions. They do work and they do function, however, these restrictions get higher and higher, and their salaries are not being paid consistently. And one of the concerns they always mention is that the number of patients is increasing, and our staff is not enough. People have been evacuated, especially doctors without borders. These organizations evacuated the doctors but some of them…in the hospitals there is a lack of professional staff. And this happened all because of this complete ban of education on the female sector. The first thing is Kabul University medical faculties are closed so there are no future female doctors at all. No future female midwives, no future female nurses…nobody. Only men. By men. For men. From men. Females are eliminated completely from the medical faculty, medical university basically.” (Najiba, 24 years old) 

The Hidden Reality

Since our main source of information about the ongoing Afghanistan crisis is Western mainstream media, but the global focus is overwhelmingly shifting away from the situation in the country, only locals can say, what is really happening in Afghanistan. Below are some stories told by my informants. 

As Najiba shares, even though the Taliban seems to have all the power in their hands, constantly claiming that they are committed to ensuring security, attacks on civilians have been continuing and the Taliban government does not protect the victims at all:“My mother got robbed on the street and went to the Taliban’s office, but they didn’t do anything, they just said: “Why the hell you are wearing a ring outside”. If the government is powerless and blames you for having money in your pocket, then what else would you expect. If people are getting killed on the street, nobody cares. It looked like they were here for a mission, they are here to receive something, and they go back. My father was ex-military who passed away due to cancer, he always told me that the Taliban always come here when they resources are over. It’s not about Islam, not about leading the people, it’s about money. They will come here; they will fight, and they will kill. Once they receive their money and their sacks are full of money, they go back to the mountains where they belong to.” (Najiba, 24 years old)  

Due to poverty and prohibition to work, more and more women are selling their bodies on the street to survive: “…entire female population is treated like sex slave; there are more and more prostitutes on the street because women are not allowed to work as a normal human being. So, they look for other ways and sell their bodies. And these Talibs are buying them and paying them. They like to see women begging on the street. Women are allowed to beg on the street which is funny: women are allowed to beg on the street, but they are not allowed to enter female school and teach geography and receive money in a human way. And this is what I have been mentioning multiple times: it’s about honouring women. They say the main reason they don’t allow women to go outside is to honour them. But is it modesty to see women begging on the street? Is it modesty that women are starving?” (Najiba, 24 years old)  

Even though prostitution in Afghanistan is illegal, due to widespread poverty, a number of women and men see it as their only remaining option.[8] 

(I could not find new data after the Taliban takeover so my only source of information on this topic is only the interviews). In addition to sex work, women and children are being tortured and killed every day, and women’s rights activists are put in jail for speaking up and trying to protect women’s rights.In summary, the situation in Afghanistan is much worse than we are told by Western mainstream media. 

The civilians face daily attacks by local rebel groups or the members of the Taliban, women are selling their bodies on the streets to survive, people are being tortured and killed every day, and human rights activists and journalists are put in jail just for speaking up…And these are just a few examples of what is really happening in Afghanistan today. 

[1] The World Factbook. People and Society: Afghanistan.

[2] Public Intelligence. Cultural Islam in Afghanistan.

[3] History. Islam’s Sunni‑Shia Divide, Explained.

[4] It is an Islamic term denoting the conformity of one person to the teaching of another. The person who performs taqlid is termed muqallid.

[5] Aljazeera. The world should not forget Afghanistan.

[6] Aljazeera. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers say will close all NGOs employing women.

[7] United Nations Development Program. Approximately 85 percent of Afghans live on less than one dollar a day in January.

[8] The Guardian. ‘I’m sacrificing myself’: agony of Kabul’s secret sex workers (2021).

Gintare Bieliauskaite

[giugno 2025]