Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban have transformed Afghanistan into a deeply restrictive and authoritarian state. Through rigid ideological control, coercive decrees and fear-driven governance, the Taliban regime has curtailed women’s rights, silenced dissent and dismantled independent media in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan under the Taliban regime has descended into a system of fear, coercion and ideological tyranny where basic freedoms are crushed under rigid extremist control.
The Taliban regime has dismantled civil liberties, silenced dissent and replaced governance with intimidation, surveillance and authoritarian rule. Afghanistan today faces institutionalised repression enforced through force and fear rather than legitimacy or representation.
The Taliban regime has systematically erased women from public life. According to UNESCO, more than 2.2 million Afghan girls and women have been denied access to secondary and higher education since 2021, with a ban on education beyond grade six now entering its fifth consecutive year in 2026.
Taliban authorities have also removed women from civil service payrolls and banned Afghan women, including UN staff, contractors and visitors, from entering UN premises nationwide for over 205 consecutive days by March 2026.
Inspectors of the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice continue humiliating and terrorising women in public spaces. Women were forcibly removed from taxis and buses in Herat on 11 January and 12 February 2026 for not wearing Taliban-approved chadors.
In Kandahar, Paktya and Uruzgan provinces, Taliban authorities instructed health centres not to treat women unless accompanied by a mahram, while female healthcare workers were also ordered to travel only with male guardians.
Taliban repression extends into every aspect of women’s economic and social life. In Uruzgan and Ghazni, inspectors of the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice ordered shopkeepers not to sell goods to women unless accompanied by a mahram and wearing a Taliban-approved hijab.
Taliban authorities even arrested a shopkeeper accused of selling goods to a woman without a male guardian. In Kandahar, real estate agents were instructed not to rent property to women independently.
Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has become a nationwide machinery of oppression.
Between 1 January and 31 March 2026, Taliban authorities carried out at least 336 arbitrary arrests and detentions and 59 incidents of ill-treatment against Afghan men and women.
Citizens across Afghanistan are monitored for clothing, fasting practices, behaviour and social interaction under constant threat of punishment.
The Taliban regime is aggressively policing cultural and private life through ideological extremism. During Ramadan (17 February to 18 March 2026), inspectors of the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice monitored fasting compliance and mosque attendance.
On 14 February 2026, Taliban inspectors targeted flower shops to prevent Valentine’s Day celebrations. On 21 March 2026, Taliban officials publicly warned people against celebrating Nowruz, reflecting systematic suppression of cultural freedoms.
Taliban justice system relies on brutality, humiliation and fear. At least 312 individuals, including 269 men, 39 women and four boys, were subjected to corporal punishment.
On 5 February 2026, in Bagram district, Taliban courts ordered five men and three women to receive 39 lashes each inside school premises over alleged “illicit relationships.” Some victims were additionally sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to four years.
Taliban decrees openly institutionalise repression and sectarian control. Under Decree No. 12 on Criminal Rules of Courts, circulated by the Taliban Supreme Court on 7 January 2026, women can face imprisonment for staying outside their husband’s home without permission, while relatives refusing to force women back can also be jailed for up to three months.
The same decree declares Sunni doctrine dominant while labelling alternative beliefs as “heretical,” exposing the sectarian and coercive nature of the Taliban regime.
Criticism of de facto authorities, their rules, policies and interpretation of Sharia is also criminalised under the Decree. Insulting an Imam is punishable by 39 lashes and one-year imprisonment, while insulting any leaders of de facto authorities is punishable by six months’ imprisonment and 20 lashes.
Failure to report meetings of “opponents of government” is punishable by two years’ imprisonment. Under the Decree, clerics and nobles receive warnings and admonishments, while middle- and lower-class persons face lashings and imprisonment.
Former Afghan officials and members of the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces continue facing arrests, torture and killings despite Taliban promises of amnesty.
Reports document at least 23 arbitrary arrests and detentions, nine incidents of torture and ill-treatment and at least five killings of former Afghan security personnel during the reporting period alone.
Taliban’s so-called amnesty has proven to be a deception masking revenge-driven persecution.
Independent journalism has been systematically dismantled under Taliban rule. On 26 January 2026, Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture revoked licenses of all media support organisations except three.
On 28 February 2026, the Taliban suspended Rah-e-Farda TV after its head criticised Taliban actions, while on 3 March 2026, Khushal Private Radio was suspended because female students spoke with a male host during a live broadcast. There remains no transparent legal mechanism to appeal media suspensions.
Female journalists have been nearly erased from the Afghan media landscape, while hundreds of journalists have fled the country, fearing detention and persecution.
Taliban’s assault on media has resulted in closure of more than half of Afghanistan’s media outlets, creating near-total collapse of independent journalism and replacing information space with censorship, propaganda and fear-driven silence.
The Taliban regime is also suppressing religious and cultural diversity. In at least eight provinces, Taliban authorities, including inspectors of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, intelligence officials and Hajj authorities, pressured Shia communities to abandon their own Eid calendar and follow Taliban designated observances instead.
Religious pluralism and cultural expression are increasingly crushed under the Taliban’s narrow extremist interpretation of religion.
Taliban governance reflects centralised authoritarian rule built on ideological extremism, coercion and fear.
Public criticism is criminalised, dissent silenced, and Afghan society pushed toward total ideological obedience.
Afghanistan under the Taliban is not governed through legitimacy or representation, but through intimidation, repression and systematic denial of fundamental human rights.
