Taliban Marks 5 Years in Power as UN Warns of Rights Crisis

Five years after the U.S. and NATO troop withdrawal on August 15, 2021, the Taliban administration marked its anniversary with celebrations across Afghanistan. High-ranking officials, foreign representatives, and thousands of citizens gathered at the traditional Loya Jirga assembly hall in Kabul under tight security, with heavy security force presence and multiple checkpoints along major routes.

While government representatives touted the end of decades of conflict and the restoration of stability, international organizations painted a starkly different picture of life inside the country.

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During the Loya Jirga ceremony, where no women were present, Taliban government deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat delivered opening remarks emphasizing peace under the current administration.

Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi addressed the administration’s ongoing international isolation. With Russia remaining the sole country to formally recognize the government, Muttaqi urged foreign nations to reconsider their diplomatic stance, asserting that nations maintaining ties have benefited while others have not.

and calling on governments to move towards a policy of engagement and mutual interaction.

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In an interview ahead of the anniversary, Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi, deputy minister for broadcasting at the Ministry of Information and Culture, defended the administration’s domestic record over the past five years. Farahi argued that the government has delivered security, infrastructure, and job creation despite facing challenges and difficulties.

United Nations Warns of Deepening Human Rights Crisis

In contrast to the official celebrations, United Nations human rights monitors issued severe warnings regarding the state of fundamental freedoms in Afghanistan. In a video message, Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the country, asserted that conditions have steadily worsened.

Bennett’s mandate concluded that the governance system amounts to the crime against humanity of gender persecution. He added that the crisis extends far beyond gender discrimination, citing documented cases of arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings, corporal punishment, enforced disappearances, and restrictions on freedom of expression, attacks on journalists and human rights defenders, persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, and discrimination against LGBT+ persons.

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2.4 Million Afghan Girls Still Barred From Secondary Education

Education remains a central point of contention between the Taliban administration and the international community. UNESCO announced that an estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls remain excluded from secondary education five years after the Taliban took over the country.

Shortly after taking power, the administration banned girls from attending secondary school beyond the sixth grade, later extending the restriction to higher education, employment, and public spaces such as parks, gyms, and sports facilities. Women are also barred from traveling to distant locations without a male guardian.

Speaking at a news conference by video, Hoda Jaberian, UNESCO’s program coordinator for education in emergencies, emphasized the scale of the reversal.

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Jaberian noted that five years represents almost an entire secondary school cycle rather than a temporary interruption, effectively wiping out two decades of progress that saw nearly 1 million girls enrolled in secondary education by 2021.

While Farahi claimed that investment in universities surpasses anything seen in the past, he did not address the secondary education ban during his interview. Meanwhile, UNESCO continues to support learning through more than 1,000 community-based literacy and skills development facilitators operating inside local homes with the knowledge of authorities.

While the restriction remains, we cannot abandon Afghan learners, Jaberian said, reiterating that UNESCO’s call for the unconditional restoration of educational access is not negotiable.