Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Rights and Freedoms

This thematic category comprises of AAN’s reporting on human rights, including women’s rights, media freedom, rule of law, governance and democratisation.

Beyond the Ban: Older girls finding alternative forms of education 

Rachel Reid •

The closure of schools for girls beyond grade six is the most glaring example of the Emirate’s discrimination against women and girls. Without access to secondary and higher education, most teenage girls and young women see little hope for a future beyond family life. But for some, the restrictions are not absolute. Whether through their […]

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Practising Law Under the Emirate: Afghan defence lawyers fight for space in a transformed justice system 

Hamed Pakteen •

After the fall of the Islamic Republic, the newly empowered Islamic Emirate radically overhauled the courts and the criminal justice system, elevating sharia as the sole source of law, along with the mullah-judges who now interpret Islamic jurisprudence. Defence lawyers, whose role is to protect the interests of the accused, have been marginalised, their professional […]

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Inside the Islamic Emirate’s Penal Code: Crime, punishment and authority in Afghanistan

Kate Clark •

The Islamic Emirate has circulated a new penal code to Afghanistan’s courts, standardising punishments for everything from insulting the ulema to forgery, taking and giving bribes and casting the evil eye. The Code was leaked to the human rights organisation, Rawadari, by someone in the government, presumably concerned about its implications for human rights and the rule […]

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Afghan Women Spoke: The People’s Tribunal for Afghan Women listened

Rachel Reid •

The judges of the People’s Tribunal for the Women of Afghanistan have found the Taliban guilty of the crime against humanity of gender persecution. Although this civil society tribunal does not have the force of law, it was conceived as a platform that could powerfully amplify the voices of women from both inside and outside […]

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A New Accountability Mechanism for Afghanistan: What the IIM-A can (and cannot) do

Ehsan Qaane •

The United Nations is creating an Independent Investigative Mechanism for Afghanistan (IIM-A) which will collect evidence of war crimes and other grave violations of international law. The new UN body will investigate, preserve and analyse evidence, creating case-ready files that prosecutors can use in multiple jurisdictions. Its mandate is not time-limited, covering past, ongoing and […]

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Is maternal mortality on the rise in Afghanistan? No official data, but much cause for concern

Jelena Bjelica • AAN Team •

Afghanistan’s maternal mortality rate was already among the ten highest in the world, but it has come under further pressure. The United States’ decision to entirely cut aid to Afghanistan earlier this year has led to the closure of over 400 health facilities and that is likely to have particularly affected women during the most […]

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A year of Propagating Virtue and Preventing Vice: Enforcers and ‘enforced’ speak about the Emirate’s morality law

Kate Clark • AAN Team •

It is a year since the Islamic Emirate issued a new law to propagate virtue and prevent vice. The goal, of changing Afghans’ dress and behaviour, has been an abiding mission of the Taliban’s since they first emerged as a movement in the 1990s. The law laid out not only the actions that the Emirate […]

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Months, Years and Thousands of Afghanis Later… Stories of Afghans battling bureaucracy

Rohullah Sorush •

Trying to get important documents from the state can be a maddening and expensive ordeal in Afghanistan. Many complain about the time-consuming and frustrating process of applying for a tazkira (ID card), passport, driving license, or a nikahkhat (marriage certificate). From government offices to courts to legal affairs departments, Afghans can get trapped in paperwork and corruption. If […]

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“The Doors to Separation Are Closed for Women”: Women and divorce under the Emirate

Letty Phillips • Rama Mirzada •

For Afghan women, getting a divorce has always been difficult, but since the re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate, it has become almost impossible. Under the new authorities, sharia – specifically Sunni Hanafi jurisprudence – is the only law that applies and many of the legal provisions that allowed women to divorce no longer exist. AAN’s […]

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Reigniting the Flames of Justice: ICC seeks arrest of the Islamic Emirate’s Supreme Leader and Chief Justice

Rachel Reid • Roxanna Shapour •

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, has requested arrest warrants for two of the most senior leaders of the Islamic Emirate. Khan said that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani bear “criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on […]

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Could the Islamic Emirate be the Inspiration for a New Crime Against Humanity? Prospects for the gender apartheid campaign

Rachel Reid •

In the spring of 2023, a campaign was launched to create a new international crime of gender apartheid. Campaigners argue that the oppression of women and girls is so total and severe in Afghanistan and Iran that it is akin to the systematic and hierarchical racist oppression practised by apartheid South Africa. Their hope is […]

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Education in Hibernation: The end of a virtuous cycle of literacy and empowerment for women in Shughnan?

Fabrizio Foschini •

The ban on girls’ secondary education, together with other policies by the Islamic Emirate, have severely affected the lives of female teachers across Afghanistan. This is seldom truer than it is in Shughnan, a mountainous district in Badakhshan province where men and women have long specialised in teaching, working in their own district and beyond. […]

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