Taliban's return to power extinguished hard-won gains for women's rights

Mahbooba Faiz and her husband and son fled Afghanistan for Ireland during the fall of Kabul. She's determined to fight for the women who were unable to leave

A Taliban fighter stands guard as women wait to receive food rations distributed by a humanitarian aid group in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2023. File Picture: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

The return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, was a devastating reversal of the progress that Afghan women had made over the previous two decades. For nearly 20 years, Afghan women had experienced a period of significant progress — particularly after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. 

With the support of international forces led by the US, women were able to reclaim rights and freedoms that had been stripped away during the Taliban's first rule in the late 1990s. Girls returned to school in their millions, women re-entered the workforce, and many took up leadership roles in politics and civil society.