Afghanistan: five Years of Darkness and Women’s Resistance

(Excerpts from the message sent to the Paris, March 6, 2026, Working Women’s meeting by the Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women (SMAW) March 8, 2026, Afghanistan).

Nearly five years have passed since the return of the Taliban’s dark rule over Afghanistan. Throughout this long period, the Taliban not only trampled on women’s rights but also silenced their voices of protest with bullets, secret prisons, and unbearable torture. In response, the international community has sunk into complete silence and indifference, providing this repressive regime with over $ 40 million a week under the title of ‘humanitarian aid’. But the breathtaking resistance of women never dies. On February 28, 2026, a group of brave Afghan girls once again came to the streets of Kabul city and shouted “Bread, Work, Freedom, Education!” They proved that the will of a nation cannot be killed with violence.

Afghanistan has experienced more than four decades of war and insecurity, and women are the main breadwinners of their households. However, the Taliban have banned women from working or leaving their homes without a mahram (male guardian). This has led to profound human tragedies. Nooria, a 13-year-old girl who had lost her father in the war and whose sick mother and little sisters depended on her, was forced to hide her gender identity to feed her family. She wore boy’s clothes so she could work in a café in Helmand province. But after a year, the Taliban identified, arrested, tortured, and imprisoned her. In Herat, a pregnant woman who was on her way to give birth was denied entry to a hospital because she did not have a male mahram with her. She gave birth outside the hospital gates and lost her child forever. H Farzia, a female teacher who had set up a home school for girls above the sixth grade, was arrested by the Taliban and tortured for 25 days in secret prisons, and was finally released on bail.

By approving more than 100 restrictive decrees against women, the Taliban have implemented a gender apartheid. In such horrifying conditions, the “Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women” (SMAW), which formed immediately after the fall of Kabul in 2021, continues to be at the forefront of the struggle and peaceful protests in Kabul and other provinces. Dozens of members of this movement have been killed by the Taliban and other members have been imprisoned and tortured.

On the occasion of March 8th, International Women’s Day of Solidarity, we, the women of Afghanistan, as the most deprived and suffering women in the world, declare our deep solidarity with all women who suffer from the catastrophes of war: with the women of Iran, the women of Ukraine, the women of Gaza, and all the oppressed and struggling women of the world. We deeply sympathise with their pain and suffering.

On this difficult path of fighting for our freedom and rights, we have an urgent need for your solidarity and practical support, our sisters and brothers in Europe, North and South America, and all countries of the world.