4.4.7. Violence against women

Table of contents

4.4.7. Violence against women

Gender-based violence is widespread in Afghanistan.1423 Even before the Taliban takeover there was a high prevalence of incidents of gender-based violence,1424 but the issue is reportedly on the rise.1425 Violence against women and girls takes place ‘inside and outside of their homes’,1426 in both the ‘public and private sphere’.1427 Specific groups of women are at higher risk of gender-based violence, including women headed-households, widows, girls forced into early marriage, internally displaced and returnees, women with disabilities, as well as religious, ethnic, sexual and gender minorities.1428 Even though the de facto authorities claimed to effectively combat violence against women,1429 UNAMA has recorded several incidents of gender‑based violence against women and girls, including murders; so-called honour killings; child marriages; forced marriages; rape; domestic violence and suicides because of domestic violence.1430 UNAMA recorded cases where de facto officials intervened to prevent violence and forced marriages, however, it also documented cases in which de facto officials were accused of being perpetrators of forced marriage, enforcing forced marriages, and encouraging a victim to stay in a marriage in which she was physically abused.1431

The fear of social shame to be punished for ‘immoral’ behaviour of female family members led men towards repression and violence against women,1432 with honour killings increasing according to an anonymous source interviewed by ACCORD.1433 Afghan human rights lawyer Humaira Rasuli found in a research study that, among women exposed to domestic violence, 57 % were facing violence by husbands and other family members, while in 43 % of the cases, perpetrators also included unidentified people and de facto MPVPV enforcers in the streets, workplace, and other public places.1434 Because of a culture of silence and out of fear of being stigmatised, women survivors of sexual violence rarely report sexual abuse and rape.1435 Reportedly, several women who were detained have been subjected to sexual violence by the de facto authorities.1436 Former female detainees face social stigma,1437 rejection by their families and report continued harassment and intimidation, including by the Taliban.1438

Even though there are no official data,1439 sources noted that the prevalence of child, early and forced marriages has been high and on the rise.1440 Early and forced marriages of girls have reportedly increased since the Taliban takeover1441 due to factors such as the economic and humanitarian crisis, the lack of education and employment prospects, and families’ belief that securing a spouse for their daughters would protect them from being forced to marry a member of the Taliban.1442

Corporal punishments inflicted by de facto courts for both men and women have increased under Taliban rule,1443 including many cases related to zina (adultery or ‘running away from home’).1444 Women and girls are disproportionally affected by the criminalisation of adultery as they are much more likely to be accused of zina (sex outside of marriage), often based on little or no evidence. Situations of women fleeing forced marriage or domestic violence and crimes of rape are frequently mischaracterised as adultery or other moral crimes.1445

  • 1423

    UN Women, Afghanistan Gender Index 2024, June 2025, url, p. 56; AW, Afghan Witness report reveals ‘daily occurrence’ of gender-based violence under Taliban rule as women suffer ‘systematic erasure’ from public life, 14 August 2024, url

  • 1424

    UNAMA, Divergence of Practice: The Handling of Complaints of Gender-Based Violence against Women and Girls by Afghanistan’s de facto Authorities, December 2023, url, p. 3; Human Rights Watch, No Shelter in Afghanistan, 19 March 2018, url

  • 1425

    Rasuli H., Highlighting Afghan Women’s Experiences of Violence and Access to Justice, RWI, May 2025, url, pp. 56-57; RFE/RL, Taliban's Closure Of Women's Shelters Leaves Afghan Women Vulnerable To Abuse, 9 July 2025, url; UN News, Four years on, here’s what total exclusion of women in Afghanistan looks like, 11 August 2025, url

  • 1426

    UN News, Four years on, here’s what total exclusion of women in Afghanistan looks like, 11 August 2025, url

  • 1427

    UNAMA, Divergence of Practice: The Handling of Complaints of Gender-Based Violence against Women and Girls by Afghanistan’s de facto Authorities, December 2023, url, p. 3

  • 1428

    Protection Cluster Afghanistan, Afghanistan: Protection Analysis Update, Update on protracted-crisis and climate-related protection risks trends, May 2024, url, p. 8

  • 1429

    UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: January-March 2025, 1 May 2025, url, p. 3

  • 1430

    UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: October-December 2024, 28 January 2025, url, p. 4

  • 1431

    UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: January-March 2025, 1 May 2025, url, p. 3; UNAMA, Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: April-June 2025, 10 August 2025, url, p. 4

  • 1432

    Guardian (The), How ordinary men became unpaid Taliban enforcers in their own homes, 9 June 2025, url

  • 1433

    ACCORD, Afghanistan: Report on the impact of the Taliban’s information practices and legal policies, particularly on women and girls, February 2025, url, pp. 71–72

  • 1434

    Rasuli H., Highlighting Afghan Women’s Experiences of Violence and Access to Justice, RWI, May 2025, url, p. 23

  • 1435

    Rasuli H., Highlighting Afghan Women’s Experiences of Violence and Access to Justice, RWI, May 2025, url, p. 25; UN Human Rights Council, Study on the so-called law on the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice, 12 March 2025, url, para. 58

  • 1436

    Rawadari, Torture and ill-treatment: The state of prisons in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, 25 June 2025, url, pp. 6, 54-58; UN OHCHR, The situation of human rights in Afghanistan, 8 October 2025, url, para. 21

  • 1437

    AW, The Erasure of Women, 15 August 2024, url, p. 1; UN OHCHR, The situation of human rights in Afghanistan, 8 October 2025, url, para. 21

  • 1438

    UN OHCHR, The situation of human rights in Afghanistan, 8 October 2025, url, para. 21

  • 1439

    Sabawoon, A. M., Living in a Collapsed Economy (4): The desperation and guilt of giving a young daughter in marriage, AAN, 20 October 2022, url

  • 1440

    RFE/RL, Taliban's Education Ban On Afghan Girls Fuels Spike In Child Marriages, 13 June 2024, url; Protection Cluster Afghanistan, Afghanistan: Protection Analysis Update, Update on protracted-crisis and climate-related protection risks trends January - December 2024, January 2025, url; UN Women Australia, FAQs: What it’s like to be a woman in Afghanistan in 2025, 7 August 2025, url; IPS, Afghanistan: Ban on Girls’ Education Linked to Rise in Forced and Child Marriage, 3 October 2025, url;

  • 1441

    Savi, M. et al., Changing social norms around age of marriage in Afghanistan Data on repression and resistance under the Taliban, ODI, February 2024, url

  • 1442

    RFE/RL, Taliban's Education Ban On Afghan Girls Fuels Spike In Child Marriages, 13 June 2024, url; RFE/RL, Afghans Increasingly Marrying Off Young Daughters To Avoid Forced Unions With Taliban, 1 December 2022, url; Sinclair, S., In the new Afghanistan, it’s sell your daughter or starve, 15 January 2024, Washington Post (The), url

  • 1443

    Afghan analyst, interview 8–9 June 2023, and email communication, 10 October 2023

  • 1444

    UNAMA, Corporal Punishment in Afghanistan, May 2023, url, pp. 13–14

  • 1445

    UN Human Rights Council, Access to justice and protection for women and girls and the impact of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, 16 June 2025, url, para. 29; USIP, Failure to Protect: The Taliban’s Reversal of Violence Against Women Protections, 22 January 2025, url