In the tapestry of Afghanistan’s long and tumultuous history, the struggle for women’s rights is a persistent, unbreakable thread—often frayed, sometimes hidden, but never severed. Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, this thread has been pulled to its absolute limit. The systematic erasure of women from public life—banning them from education beyond the sixth grade, from most employment, from parks, and from living a life without a male chaperone—represents one of the most severe women’s rights crises in the world.
In this stark reality, women’s rights organizations have not disappeared. Instead, their mission has been fundamentally transformed. They have shifted from a decade of hard-won, visible progress to a new, more dangerous phase: one of underground resistance, urgent humanitarian aid, and a desperate, unwavering fight to preserve the very idea of an Afghan woman as a public, educated, and free individual.
The Pillars of Resistance: Roles in a New Era
The work of these organizations today is multifaceted, operating both within the country at immense risk and from the diaspora with determined focus. Their roles can be categorized into several critical areas:
1. Emergency Humanitarian Aid and Survival Support: With the economy in freefall and female-headed households facing starvation, many organizations have pivoted to life-saving aid. This includes distributing food, cash assistance, and winter supplies to the most vulnerable women and their families. This work is not just charity; it is a act of solidarity that keeps a network of women alive and connected, ensuring they have the basic means to survive today so they can fight for tomorrow.
2. Covert Education and Skill-Building: In direct defiance of the Taliban’s edicts, a brave network of underground schools and online classes has emerged. Organizations both inside and outside Afghanistan facilitate secret home-schools for girls above the sixth grade, provide online educational resources via secure platforms, and offer vocational training like coding, digital skills, and English language courses. These initiatives are a powerful act of resistance, refusing to let a generation of minds be extinguished and ensuring skills are preserved for the future.
3. Documentation and Advocacy: Afghan women’s rights defenders are meticulously documenting the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Taliban. They collect testimonies of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, and the devastating impacts of the decrees. This evidence is then used by international organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and presented to bodies like the UN to apply diplomatic pressure, guide sanctions policy, and ensure the world does not look away. They are the archivists of this crisis, building the case for future accountability.
4. Psychological and Mental Health Support: The toll of living under such oppressive rules, coupled with trauma from past conflicts, has created a massive mental health crisis. Organizations provide crucial psychosocial support through safe, secretive channels, offering counseling and community for women suffering from isolation, depression, and anxiety. This work is essential to maintaining the psychological resilience of a population under siege.
5. Legal Aid and Defense: While the formal judicial system has been largely replaced by the Taliban’s interpretation of Sharia law, organizations still work to provide legal aid to women. This includes assisting those arrested for so-called “moral crimes” (like appearing in public without a mahram), trying to navigate the arbitrary legal processes, and advocating for their release.
Key Organizations: Faces of the Fight
While many groups now operate anonymously for safety, several prominent organizations symbolize this struggle:
- The Afghan Women’s Network (AWN): A long-standing umbrella organization that once coordinated over 120 women’s groups and NGOs inside Afghanistan. While its physical presence has been drastically reduced, it continues to advocate fiercely from abroad, serving as a powerful collective voice on the international stage.
- Women for Afghan Women (WAW): Originally one of the largest grassroots organizations inside Afghanistan, running women’s shelters, protection centers, and family guidance centers. Forced to suspend most of its in-country operations after the Taliban’s takeover and the heartbreaking evacuation of its staff and clients, it continues its humanitarian and advocacy work from outside, supporting the vast network of evacuees and refugees.
- The Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL): Founded by the inspirational Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, AIL has decades of experience operating in challenging environments. It continues its work in education and health, adapting its methods to the current reality to provide clandestine learning opportunities and healthcare for women and girls.
- Human Rights Watch & Amnesty International (Afghanistan Teams): While international, their dedicated regional teams work hand-in-hand with local Afghan activists to investigate and amplify the atrocities, providing a crucial platform and layer of protection for those whose voices are being silenced inside the country.
- Countless Unnamed Collectives: The true backbone of the resistance is the network of anonymous teachers running secret classrooms, the tech activists creating digital libraries, the community leaders distributing aid, and the mothers teaching their daughters in secret. Their names may never be known, but their courage is the engine of the movement.
Challenges: Operating Under a Gendered Apartheid
The challenges these organizations face are existential:
- Extreme Personal Risk: Members face constant threat of harassment, surveillance, arbitrary detention, torture, and death for their work.
- Funding Crises: With the change in government, much of the international donor funding that sustained the civil society sector has dried up or become incredibly difficult to channel into the country without jeopardizing recipients.
- Digital Security: Communication is perilous. The Taliban monitor online activity, making coordination and documentation a high-stakes operation requiring sophisticated digital security protocols.
- International Attention Fatigue: As the crisis drags on, there is a dangerous risk of the world becoming numb to the plight of Afghan women, making advocacy and fundraising increasingly difficult.
How to Support: Solidarity in Action
Supporting these organizations requires thoughtful and sustained action:
- Donate Financially: Contribute to organizations like Women for Afghan Women, the Afghan Women’s Network, and others with proven track records and secure channels to get aid to those inside.
- Amplify Afghan Voices: Follow and share the reports and statements from Afghan women leaders and activists. Use your platform to ensure their messages are heard. Center their voices, not just your own commentary.
- Advocate to Your Governments: Pressure elected officials to make women’s rights a non-negotiable condition in any engagement with the Taliban. Advocate for humanitarian exemptions to sanctions and for streamlined, urgent visa pathways for at-risk defenders.
- Educate Yourself and Others: Stay informed about the evolving situation. Understand the term “gender apartheid” being used by many rights groups to describe the situation and advocate for its legal recognition.
Conclusion: The Guardians of the Future
The women’s rights organizations of Afghanistan are more than NGOs; they are the guardians of a future that has been forcibly put on hold. They are keeping the light of knowledge burning in dark rooms, documenting crimes for a day of justice, and handing out bread to keep hope alive. Their work is a defiant declaration that Afghan women will not be erased. They are fighting not just for the right to learn or work, but for the fundamental right to exist as full human beings. Supporting them is not an act of charity but a moral imperative—an investment in the inevitable day when Afghanistan’s women can once again openly shape their own destiny.