Half of Afghanistan women rarely leave home as Taliban restrictions deepen — UN agency

GENEVA - Half of Afghan women now leave their homes only once or twice a month as Taliban-imposed restrictions curtail their freedom of movement and participation in public life, according to data released by U.N. Women on Wednesday.

As the Taliban prepare to mark the fifth anniversary of their return to power this week, Afghanistan remains the only country in the world to ban girls from secondary education and women from attending university, stated the U.N. agency, which promotes gender equality.

"Half a decade after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Afghanistan has systematically dismantled the rights of half its population, making it a global outlier with no parallel in the modern world," U.N. Women said in a statement.

Saif-ul-Islam Khyber, spokesperson for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which enforces many of the government's rules on women, told Reuters that reports of women not feeling safe to leave their homes were false and that women in the country have access to all their rights.

“This is the first time in approximately 50 years that all citizens of Afghanistan feel that they are living in safety and security,” he said, adding that the situation of women’s rights in the country was moving in a "positive direction."

The Taliban have barred an estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls from secondary education since they regained power in Afghanistan in 2021, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said on Tuesday.

U.N. Women said the Taliban authorities have issued more than 100 decrees targeting women and girls since taking power, institutionalising discrimination and deepening what it described as the world's most severe women's rights crisis.

The Taliban argue they respect women's rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan culture.

More than half of women surveyed by the U.N. agency reported leaving home twice a month or less, while nearly three-quarters said they felt unsafe going out without a male guardian, known as a mahram.

The restrictions have also fuelled a worsening mental health crisis, according to the U.N. agency. Seven in 10 women described their mental health as "bad" or "very bad", citing isolation, loss of opportunities and limited access to support networks.

The agency warned that recent decrees had further weakened women's legal protections. Measures introduced this year abolished legal equality between men and women before the law, strengthened men's authority within marriage and made it more difficult for women to seek divorce, it said.

Women also remain largely excluded from the economy. Only 7% of women are employed compared with 84% of men, according to the U.N. Women report.

The agency said its report was based on a door-to-door survey of 2,190 people in February to March 2025 and telephone surveys of 2,811 peopleconducted in April to May 2026.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; additional reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in KabulEditing by Keith Weir)