Afghanistan: The Taliban threatens to shutdown NGOs employing women and continues to criminalise activists and journalists

Civic space in Afghanistan remains rated as ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor in its new People Power Under Attack report published on 4th December 2024. Since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, the de facto authorities continue to commit human rights violations and crimes under international law against the Afghan people, especially women and girls, with absolute impunity.

Civil society activists, journalists and others face severe restrictions, and activists have been arbitrarily arrested and detained for their criticism of the Taliban. Those who are detained are often denied access to urgent medical and legal assistance. Others have faced harassment, intimidation and violence, and some have been killed. The Taliban have also raided media offices and detained journalists. Some activists have been tortured and ill-treated.

Afghan women, in particular, have faced a significant denial of their basic human rights, as the Taliban has issued over 200 decrees, orders and edicts aimed at restricting women’s rights. These measures undermine women’s access to education, employment, social mobility and other fundamental freedoms, effectively erasing them from public life.

In a statement released on 10th December 2025, International Human Rights Day, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) expressed worry about the current state of human rights in Afghanistan, particularly with regard to the systemic discrimination against women and girls, who are excluded from nearly every sphere of public life.

In January 2025, the UK government joined a coalition of countries that have pledged political support for the initiative to refer Afghanistan’s violations of women’s human rights to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Previously, in September 2024, four countries - Germany, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands - declared their intention to hold the Taliban accountable by bringing them before the ICJ for violating the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has been diligently investigating alleged crimes in Afghanistan since 2003, following the country’s commitment to the Rome Statute. On 23rd January 2025, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan announced applications for warrants of arrest for the Taliban’s Supreme Leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the Chief of Justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani over the persecution of women and girls. ICC judges will now decide whether to issue the warrants.

In recent months, the Taliban has threatened to revoke the licences of NGOs that employ women, while activists, artists and critics continue to be arbitrarily arrested and prosecuted. Activists involved in protests have been killed or have had their families targeted. There has been a crackdown on journalists and news outlets, while a filmmaker was tortured in detention

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NGOs employing women at risk of shutdown by Taliban

The Taliban has continued to exclude women and girls from higher education, many forms of employment and public spaces.

On 26th December 2024, the de facto government issued a circular warning national and foreign NGOs that their activities would be suspended and their licences revoked if they employed women, as this violated a decree first issued in 2022. The decree in 2022 prohibited women from working in NGOs and ordered NGOs to suspend their female employees, allegedly because they did not adhere to the Taliban’s interpretation of the Islamic dress code for women.

In response, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, expressed concern over the announcement, saying: “I once again urge the de facto authorities in Afghanistan to revoke this deeply discriminatory decree. NGOs play a vital role in providing critical life-saving assistance – to Afghan women, men, girls and boys.”

Arbitrary arrest and prosecution of activists, artists and critics

Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, dozens of human rights defenders, activists and poets have been arbitrarily detained, tortured or killed across the country.

Civil rights and education activist Hamed Qarloq, who was arrested in November 2024 by the Taliban, was arbitrarily detained for nearly six weeks before being released. He was reportedly collecting donations for the reconstruction of a school in the Takhar province of Afghanistan. His release came after extensive efforts by civil society, including public protests and widespread social media campaigns demanding his freedom.

Education activist and founder of a private school, Abdul Qoddus Yasinzada remains in detention. In November 2024, the de facto authorities detained him in Herat province for unknown reasons. The Taliban authorities have not disclosed any information about him to his family.

On 1st February 2024, it was reported that Izzatullah Rahimi, who had been detained with Najib Watanyar, had been released. The two activists were detained on 2nd December 2024 in Kabul for participating in a street protest demanding an end to the oppression of women and the genocide of Hazaras in Afghanistan. According to Kabul Now, Rahimi was released after 40 days in custody, but was expelled from Kabul University and has continued to receive multiple summonses from the Taliban, raising concerns for his own safety and that of his family. Fearing further reprisals, he fled Afghanistan and is now residing in a neighbouring country. However, Watanyar remains detained.

The Taliban’s intelligence forces detained Alam Hashimi, a poet and cultural activist, in Kabul, on 16th February 2025. According to his relatives, Hashimi was arrested in the Arya Township area of Kabul and taken to an unknown location. His family said they have received no information about his whereabouts since his detention. Hashimi was born in Panjshir province and is known for his poetry which chronicles Afghanistan’s history of resistance against oppression and foreign invasions.

Enayatullah Batash, a civil society activist in the northern province of Kunduz, was detained by the Taliban on 18th February 2025. Batash was detained and reportedly beaten by Taliban members in front of his wife and children.

Peaceful assembly

The Taliban have continued to target those involved in protests, as well as their families.

UN expert calls for accountability for death of activist

Hamza Ulfat, a social activist and Hazara protester, who supported women’s protests after the Taliban’s return, died in January 2025 after allegedly being shot by the Taliban and denied access to urgent medical care and food. He was arrested in February 2023 for participating in protests alongside women in the Dashte Barchi area of western Kabul and released in July 2023. While in detention he endured prolonged torture.

Richard Bennet, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, called for an investigation into his case, stating: “This is very disturbing and requires investigation and accountability. My condolences go out to Hamza Ulfat’s family and loved ones.”

Brother of woman protester detained

In November 2024, Parisa Mubariz, a woman protester and human rights defender, claimed that Taliban intelligence agents had detained her brother once again in Takhar province for over 50 days.

According to Mubariz, since her brother’s detention, she and her family have been unaware of his fate, as the Taliban authorities have not provided any information. Mubariz leads the Takhar Women’s Movement, a group established after the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, which protests the regime’s restrictive measures against women and girls in the country. She is also the head of Smart Home School, an initiative secretly established in Takhar and Badakhshan to provide education for women and girls who have been deprived of this right by the Taliban.

In February 2023, Mubariz and her brother were taken from their house by the Taliban in Takhar province due to her involvement in protests against the Taliban’s policies. They were released from prison the following day after providing a guarantee that she would not protest again.

Expression

Three years following the Taliban's takeover, journalists and media workers are continuing to face growing threats of intimidation, severe censorship, and an ongoing assault on independent journalism.

According to a press release by the Afghanistan Journalist Center (AFJC) on World Television Day 2024, in November 2024, at least 12 television stations in the country were shut down in 2024, either due to direct orders from Taliban authorities or as a result of their restrictive policies on media. The AFJC also reported that the Taliban had issued at least 21 directives that substantially restrict press freedom and were inconsistent with former media laws and propose amendments to Media Law and Access to Information. These directives, although not issued through standard legal procedures, form the foundation of the Taliban government's media and journalism policies.

The AFJC’s 2024 annual report on ‘Media Freedom in Afghanistan’ published on 26th December 2024 – highlights a concerning eight percent increase in rights violations against media outlets compared to previous years. The report indicates that 181 media outlets were shut down, and 50 journalists were detained.

Crackdown on journalists and news outlets

On 6th November 2024, the Taliban's Department of Virtue and Vice "locked and sealed" the office of Zhman Radio in Khost province This drastic step was a response to the station playing background music during a morning show on important social issues, violating the Taliban’s strict prohibition against music broadcasting. Following a five-day shutdown, the radio station was reopened with the stringent requirement that no music could ever be played again.

On the same day, the de-facto authorities also shut down Lawang Radio, a private station in eastern Khost province, for similar violations, including breaching the music broadcasting ban and allowing women to contact the media outlet.

Seven staff from Arezo TV’s office in Kabul were arrested and detained for two weeks before being released on bail. As previously documented, on 4th December 2024, dozens of Taliban agents from the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) raided the offices of private broadcaster Arezo TV in Kabul, questioned staff members for four hours, and detained seven journalists and media workers. Women journalists were expelled from the premises, and the network’s offices were sealed. The Taliban accused Arezo TV journalists during the raid of collaborating with and reporting for exiled media outlets operating outside Afghanistan.

Abduraziq Seddiqi, the director of Seday-e-Badghis Radio, was released on 14th December 2024, after spending 34 days in a Taliban detention facility in Kabul. He had been accused by the Information and Culture Department of Badghis province of fabricating reports about the local situation, specifically those related to women working for a private enterprise, and disseminating these reports through international media outlets.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Mahdi Ansary, a reporter for Afghan News Agency, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on 1st January 2025, for disseminating anti-Taliban propaganda. He was detained by the Taliban in October 2024, while returning home from his office.

On 4th February 2025, the Taliban's General Intelligence Directorate (GDI), along with members of the Ministry of Information and Culture, raided the office of Radio Begum. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), during the raid, the Taliban interrogated the employees, confiscated computers, hard drives and mobile phones belonging to the station's female journalists, and arrested two male staff members.

The Taliban suspended the radio station's licence, citing "violations of broadcasting policies, improper use of its licence, and providing content and programmes to a foreign-based television network." Established in March 2021, Radio Begum was a women-led initiative and an essential source of information for the increasingly oppressed women of Afghanistan, dedicated to broadcasting educational programmes for women and girls across several provinces. The suspension of Radio Begum was followed by a huge outcry from rights groups and international media support organisations.

Célia Mercier, Head of the RSF South Asia Desk said: “By using vaguely worded regulations to silence a radio station dedicated to Afghan women, the regime is reaffirming its appetite for brutal censorship, which is just one part of a broader policy of media repression.”

Richard Bennet, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, said he was “deeply concerned about the detention of two male staff from women-led radio station Radio Begum & urge their immediate and unconditional release & to stop intimidation and arbitrary arrests of journalists & media workers which has devastated civic space in Afghanistan”

Filmmaker tortured in detention and convicted

On 18th December 2024, Sayed Rahim Saeedi, a 57-year-old filmmaker and managing director of Anar Media, was sentenced to three years in prison for allegedly spreading propaganda against the Taliban.

According to Amnesty International, he was arrested on 14th July 2024 near his office by the members of the Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI). Despite suffering from serious health issues, such as lumbar disc herniation and prostate problems, he was denied necessary healthcare and medication while serving his sentence and was also subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment that worsened his health condition. Family visits were severely restricted, and he has been denied legal representation, leaving him vulnerable and without the means to defend himself.