Aug 30, 2026 · 17 min · 7 segments
In August 2021, after two decades of military involvement, the people of Afghanistan were abandoned by the United States and its allies. The Taliban, the extremist Islamist movement supported by the…
Fereshteh Abbasi is the Afghanistan researcher with Human Rights Watch and has documented the human rights situation in Afghanistan for more than a decade.
And I'm very glad to have her here on Notes from the World today to discuss the current situation in the country.
Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch released a report looking at the situation in Afghanistan five years after the Taliban took power, in which it concluded that, and I want to quote directly from the report here.
Over the last five years, the Taliban's increasingly draconian policies have made Afghanistan one of the world's greatest human rights crises.
Particularly for women and girls, the Taliban have barred women and girls from secondary and higher education, and women have also faced severe restrictions in employment, freedom of expression, and movement outside their homes, which makes it difficult for humanitarian aid organizations to reach them.
Journalists, activists and people perceived as critics of the Taliban have faced intimidation, arbitrary arrest and detention and torture.
Several hundred members of the former government's security forces have been victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killing.
More than 3.7 million children face acute malnutrition and health services have been severely weakened.
Mass returns of Afghan refugees forced out of Pakistan and Iran have exacerbated the crisis as most returnees lack housing and sources of subsistence or income.
Given all that, how would you characterize the situation on the ground in Afghanistan today, five years after the international withdrawal from the country?
I mean, as you also mentioned, the report that Human Rights Watch released earlier this month, five years into the Taliban rule, Afghanistan has become one of the worst human rights crises and also the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
And I do believe that the Taliban leadership needs to take responsibility for the worsening of the situation on the ground.
So to begin with the human rights crisis in 2026, Afghanistan remains to be the only country in the world that its women and girls are barred from secondary and higher education.
It's five years of Afghan women not being able to go to school, the doors of the schools being closed to them.
It's five years of isolation, it's five years of them losing hope, losing any optimism for a better future under the Taliban rule.
On the humanitarian crisis part, according to the UN, more than 17 million Afghans, which is around 40% of Afghanistan's population, will face food insecurity by the end of this year.
There is, I mean, I have personally spoken to people in the country who cannot feed their children.
And unfortunately, it's very difficult to say hopefully things will get better until the Taliban are there.
Fereshteh Abbasi is the Afghanistan researcher with Human Rights Watch and has documented the human rights situation in Afghanistan for more than a decade.
And I'm very glad to have her here on Notes from the World today to discuss the current situation in the country.
Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch released a report looking at the situation in Afghanistan five years after the Taliban took power, in which it concluded that, and I want to quote directly from the report here.
Over the last five years, the Taliban's increasingly draconian policies have made Afghanistan one of the world's greatest human rights crises.
Particularly for women and girls, the Taliban have barred women and girls from secondary and higher education, and women have also faced severe restrictions in employment, freedom of expression, and movement outside their homes, which makes it difficult for humanitarian aid organizations to reach them.
Journalists, activists and people perceived as critics of the Taliban have faced intimidation, arbitrary arrest and detention and torture.
Several hundred members of the former government's security forces have been victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killing.
More than 3.7 million children face acute malnutrition and health services have been severely weakened.
Mass returns of Afghan refugees forced out of Pakistan and Iran have exacerbated the crisis as most returnees lack housing and sources of subsistence or income.
Given all that, how would you characterize the situation on the ground in Afghanistan today, five years after the international withdrawal from the country?
I mean, as you also mentioned, the report that Human Rights Watch released earlier this month, five years into the Taliban rule, Afghanistan has become one of the worst human rights crises and also the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
And I do believe that the Taliban leadership needs to take responsibility for the worsening of the situation on the ground.
So to begin with the human rights crisis in 2026, Afghanistan remains to be the only country in the world that its women and girls are barred from secondary and higher education.
It's five years of Afghan women not being able to go to school, the doors of the schools being closed to them.
It's five years of isolation, it's five years of them losing hope, losing any optimism for a better future under the Taliban rule.
On the humanitarian crisis part, according to the UN, more than 17 million Afghans, which is around 40% of Afghanistan's population, will face food insecurity by the end of this year.
There is, I mean, I have personally spoken to people in the country who cannot feed their children.
And unfortunately, it's very difficult to say hopefully things will get better until the Taliban are there.
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