Afghan refugee women are pictured upon their arrival from Pakistan in April 2025. Islamabad wants to … More deport 800,000 Afghans after cancelling their residence permits \u2014 the second phase of a deportation programme which has already pushed out around 800,000 undocumented Afghans since 2023. (Photo credit: SANAULLAH SEIAM\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
On April 30, 2025, Rukhshana Media<\/a>, an Afghan women\u2019s media organization, reported on the tragic death of a young Afghan woman. The woman died after setting herself on fire in Taywara district, Ghor province, in an alleged attempt to escape a forced marriage. The Taliban de facto authorities have not commented on the case. Human rights organizations working on the situation in Afghanistan have been warning about the growing issue of suicide among women in Afghanistan, which they link to the omnipresent restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan that effectively erase them from public life.<\/p>\n The return of the Taliban in August 2021 was followed by women and girls being stripped of their rights one by one. The last three years have seen the Taliban placing restrictions on all aspects of women\u2019s lives in Afghanistan. From education to employment. From movement to participation in everyday activities. When the international community thought that it could not get any worse for women in Afghanistan, the Taliban kept coming up with new ways to impose more restrictions on women. On May 1, 2025, the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported<\/a> that the Taliban had followed through on their decrees aimed at erasing women from public life in the country and restricting their freedom of movement. UNAMA continues to receive reports that Afghan women are being denied the opportunity to join the workforce, are unable to access services without a male relative, while girls are still deprived of their right to education.<\/p>\n These restrictions have a profound effect on the health and well-being of women and girls across Afghanistan. In 2022, addressing the UN Human Rights Council, Fawzia Koofi, former deputy speaker of the Afghan Parliament, said<\/a> that lack of opportunity and ailing mental health, was taking a terrible toll on women and girls: \u201cEvery day there is at least one or two women who commit suicide for the lack of opportunity, for the mental health, for the pressure they receive.\u201d A 2024 report from UN Women suggested that 68% of those interviewed knew at least one woman or girl who had suffered from anxiety or depression, and 8% of respondents knew at least one woman or girl who had attempted suicide. The report relied on interviews from 2023. As the Taliban\u2019s grip over women and girls has tightened over the subsequent years, their experiences have only deteriorated. Mursalina Amin, founder of Girls Toward Leadership<\/a>, warned<\/a> that \u201cThe situation is so severe that even talking about it makes them cry. They are trapped\u2014no education, no movement, no self-expression. All those dreams they built in their minds, they are now nothing. They don\u2019t even have the language to describe what they\u2019re going through. Every Afghan girl I\u2019ve spoken to has mental health issues, but they can\u2019t speak about it.\u201d<\/p>\n