Three years later, the Taliban has created the biggest women’s rights crisis in the world.

The Taliban has created the world’s worst women’s rights crisis since they took power in Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday.

In a report marking the third anniversary of the Taliban regime’s rise to power, HRW says Afghanistan is also facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with aid severely underfunded, thousands of Afghans forced to return to Afghanistan from Pakistan, and thousands more hoping to emigrate to Western countries still waiting.

Under the Taliban regime, Afghanistan is the only country where girls are banned from studying beyond the sixth grade, says a New York-based organization.

“The Taliban also violated women’s right to freedom of movement, banned them from many types of employment, removed protections for women and girls who were victims of gender-based violence, created barriers to accessing health care, and prevented them from playing sports or even visiting parks,” the statement said.

According to HRW, the UN special rapporteur on Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, described the situation as “an institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, disregard for human dignity and exclusion of women and girls.”

“Under the brutal rule of the Taliban, Afghan women and girls are living their worst nightmares. All governments should support efforts to hold Taliban leaders and anyone else responsible for serious crimes in the country accountable,” said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Since January 2024, the Taliban have been detaining women and girls in Kabul and other provinces for what they call “bad hijab,” or failure to adhere to the prescribed dress code, according to HRW.

UN investigators said some of those detained were held incommunicado for days and subjected to “physical violence, threats and intimidation.”

In addition to tightening restrictions on the rights of women and girls, the Taliban continues to severely restrict freedom of expression and the media, and detain and torture protesters, critics and journalists, according to HRW reports.

“The decline in development aid has contributed to a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has reported that more than half the population – 23 million people – are food insecure. People have been severely affected,” the NGO adds.

According to HRW, the UN’s 2024 humanitarian response plan is underfunded, with donor countries contributing only 12% of the required funds in August.

The loss of outside aid, he adds, has seriously damaged Afghanistan’s health system and exacerbated malnutrition and diseases resulting from inadequate medical care.

Restrictions imposed by the Taliban on women and girls have deprived them of access to healthcare, jeopardizing their right to health.

“The Taliban’s bans on education guarantee a future shortage of female health workers,” he insisted, said Human Rights Watch, which says donor countries must find ways to ease the current humanitarian crisis without exacerbating the Taliban’s repressive policies against women and girls.

Since September 2023, more than 665,000 Afghans have arrived in Afghanistan from Pakistan after being forced to leave the country during the Pakistani government’s crackdown on foreign immigrants and refugees, according to HRW.

Many of them have lived in Pakistan for decades, the organization recalls, stressing that these figures add to the millions of internally displaced people in Afghanistan and that they outstrip existing humanitarian assistance.

Thousands of Afghans who fled the country after the Taliban took power are “living in limbo in Iran, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere” as resettlement processes in countries that have pledged to welcome Afghans, including the United States and the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada, have been “slow and inadequate to meet the needs of at-risk Afghans.”

“The third anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover is a grim reminder of the human rights crisis in Afghanistan, but it must also be a call to action,” Abbasi said.

“Governments that collaborate with the Taliban should systematically remind them that their abuses against women and girls, and against all Afghans, violate Afghanistan’s obligations under international law. Donors should ensure that aid reaches those who need it most and find durable solutions to Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis,” Human Rights Watch concludes.