Rights of Women and Girls: Afghanistan

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—(Gen Kitchen.)

I am pleased to bring forward this debate on Government support for the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan because, put simply, the situation for women and girls there is catastrophic. As Human Rights Watch has said, it is

“the most serious women’s rights crisis in the world.”

Since coming to power in 2021, the Taliban have launched an all-out attack on women, systematically stripping away the economic, political and social rights of millions of women and girls. Today, I will speak about what this means in practice, and how the UK Government can support women and girls in Afghanistan.

To start, I pay tribute to Afghan women, who, despite everything they endure, continue to fight for their rights, both in Afghanistan and from overseas. Their hope rings true in a young woman—let us call her Naila—whose right to finish her degree was stolen by the Taliban. She said,

“In the deep silence, something inside me refuses to break. In the darkness I have held on to my dreams, like small candles in my hands, protecting the fragile flames from the wind. I write in my secret notebook, whisper my dreams to the night sky and promise myself that one day, the world will hear Afghan girls again.”

However, I have heard from many Afghan women that they feel that the world has simply forgotten them. We must be clear that we stand with them, so let us ask today what more we can do—both the Government and we parliamentarians—to support women and girls in Afghanistan.

Some people might ask why I have chosen to speak about this topic. Why, with so much live conflict across the world, should we care about this issue today? Because not only is the erasure of women’s and girls’ rights in Afghanistan wrong, but if we do not stand with Afghan women and girls—if the world tolerates this erasure of their rights—we are sending a message that the rights of women and girls everywhere are up for negotiation. We are sending a message that the world does not care enough, and that we will turn a blind eye when half our population are under threat. That is a message that I refuse to send, and I hope it is one that this whole House refuses to send. If we care about women’s rights anywhere, we must care about women’s rights in Afghanistan. As Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan politician and former Deputy Speaker of the Afghan Parliament, said recently before the International Development Committee,

“Today, millions of girls in Afghanistan’s hopes are stripped away from them. It is not only us. We are the frontline defenders of this…It can reach anywhere, any country.”

Let me turn to the situation on the ground. The dystopian fantasy played out in many films and much fiction is a real-world nightmare in Afghanistan. The rights of women and girls are being systematically erased, alongside their presence in public life; they have no right to education post primary school, no right to employment, and no right to travel by themselves. Of course, before the Taliban took power, there were huge challenges, with Afghanistan ranked among the lowest countries in the world for gender equality. However, there had also been hard-won gains, which are being systematically undone, one by one, under the cruel hand of the Taliban.

I commend the hon. Lady for bringing this debate to the House. I spoke to her beforehand, just to give her an idea of what I was thinking about. As of late 2025, over 37,200 people from Afghanistan have been resettled in the UK through Government-sponsored schemes—specialised, safe and legal routes—including the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme and the Afghan relocations and assistance policy. Targeting demographics is crucial, and we must do more to ensure that such schemes focus specifically on vulnerable groups, especially women. Does the hon. Lady agree with me and others that there is more we can do, through resettlement, to protect women and girls, by creating safe and legal pathways to ensure their safety from the Taliban?

I thank the hon. Member for that important point. He is right. The Government have set out new proposals on immigration that have a focus on safe routes, and it is important that we stand with female human rights defenders from Afghanistan. Many of them came over here before there were those routes. It was not easy for them, and many people worked incredibly hard to make that happen. I hope that we can have safer passages, and that it can be much clearer how they can be accessed.

The hon. Member and I are members and officers of the all-party parliamentary group on Afghan women and girls. On the point about education and access to healthcare for women, we hosted a meeting last year with Dr Feroz, a former Health Minister in Afghanistan. He spoke movingly about the case for medical care for Afghan women. One of his key asks was for more support in Afghanistan for women to be trained as midwives to improve maternal outcomes. I am potentially anticipating the Minister’s response, and I know how challenging the situation is, but does the hon. Member agree that we should be able to discuss this from a bilateral perspective?

I thank the hon. Member for her contribution, and for everything she has done as chair of the APPG. She has been advocating for Afghan women and girls for a long time. I totally agree, and I will come on to healthcare a bit later in my speech.

To return to education, Afghanistan is the only country in the world that bans girls from attending school beyond the primary level, depriving 1.5 million girls of secondary education. Those girls are stripped of their right to learn and their hopes and dreams for the future. On employment, the Taliban have incrementally removed women from professional roles. Instead, they are confined to their home. Over the past three months, we have heard that the Afghan Ministry of Defence and the Afghan army have reportedly prevented women employees from entering the UN compound and its premises across the country, forcing them to work from home, further isolating women and impacting on the effective delivery of aid.

Milton Keynes is proud to host four hotels full of Afghan evacuees. I have had the pleasure of meeting many women who completed their education, become professionals, finished university and become judges, lawyers and doctors. They could no longer work in their country and were evacuated. Their fear above all was for their younger sisters, who they left behind, and who are now under this cruel regime. Their fear was that these young girls would never experience the joy of learning, the joy of practising and the joy of being able to do their job. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is unconscionable, in a world where women should be as valued as men, that these girls have no hope for the future?

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. This week, girls in the UK are going to school, and it is a right that we take for granted. It is a right that so many countries take for granted. A country that bans education is putting a brake on its prospects.

According to UN Women, only 24% of women are part of the labour force in Afghanistan now, compared with 89% of men. Amid this worsening economic situation, child marriage is on the rise again, with 10% of Afghan girls under the age of 15 married.

There is also the issue of the right to travel and live in liberty. In August 2024, a Taliban edict banned women from leaving home without a mahram or chaperone. The crackdown has become even more draconian; it involves things that we could not imagine would even be possible, such as directives ordering women not to sing and the removal of windows through which women might be seen. The most recent action to cut internet connections across multiple provinces has shut down the last lifeline that many women and girls had to access learning. The young girl I referred to, Naila, said that since the internet outage

“the silence became even heavier. It felt as if the world had drifted far away, leaving us in complete isolation. No message could reach us…It felt like we were being erased”.

The impact of all these actions cannot be overstated, both for women now and for the future, and they are happening amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis: 1.4 million people face food insecurity, and 4.2 million people are internally displaced. As the Minister knows well, the crisis has been made worse by the return of Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan; more than 2.6 million returned in 2025 alone. A significant number had lived outside Afghanistan for generations and lacked family property or social networks to support reintegration. Women account for approximately 60% of returnees and face compounded risks. As the hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) mentioned, a chronic national health crisis is preventing women from receiving healthcare. UN Women estimates that this will increase maternal mortality by 50% this year, and that is made worse by the ban on women training to be midwives and nurses.

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—(Gen Kitchen.)

But still those women fight on. Women-led organisations continue to lead the way in so many different respects, delivering humanitarian assistance, supporting survivors and helping communities, all the while navigating life-threatening risks.

I know that the Minister cares deeply about Afghanistan and has huge experience there, and I urge him to continue to do everything possible to stand with Afghan women and girls. I welcome the appointment of Baroness Harman as the UK’s global envoy for women and girls, as she has made Afghan women and girls one of her priorities. Of course we cannot solve the crisis on our own, nor should we, but it is imperative that we play our part and that, importantly, we work with other countries that have influence on the Taliban and in the region.

I want to focus on three specific issues on which I think the Government could act, although they are already acting in many of these areas: aid, accountability and the women, peace and security agenda. Let me begin with aid. Just last week the United Nations launched a $1.7 billion humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan, warning that it will remain one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with 22 million Afghans in need of humanitarian assistance this year; but with major donor countries such as the United States turning away, whether that appeal is heard remains to be seen. Funding cuts have already forced the suspension of 218 gender-based violence service points, affecting more than a million people, mainly women and girls. In the light of our own aid cuts, may I ask the Minister to speak about our commitments to Afghanistan and, in particular, how we are ensuring that the money we spend reaches women and girls and human rights defenders?

I thank the hon. Lady for giving way again. She is speaking powerfully about aid and contributions. May I briefly mention the global polio eradication initiative? Polio could be eradicated in the next three years, which would be a historic milestone for the world, but to do that the UK Government need to commit £50 million a year to the initiative for the next two years. Given how little we can do to support Afghan at present, this is one tangible action that the Government can take. Will the hon. Lady reiterate that call tonight?

Absolutely. We were, of course, on the brink of eradicating polio. It exists in very few countries, and to see it surge again in countries such as Afghanistan risks so many development gains.

Can the Minister tell us how much is currently being spent on women’s rights and how much we will spend next year? Will he commit himself to protecting that funding for the future, and will he ensure that the money reaches the women’s rights organisations and women’s rights defenders on the frontline?

However, no amount of aid can address the human rights crisis in Afghanistan, and in that context I turn to my second point, about justice and accountability. Many Afghan women are calling for gender apartheid to be recognised as a crime in international law. Their call is now being taken up by a number of member states as well as international legal experts and lawyers, and I back that call. Can the Minister set out the Government’s position on recognising gender apartheid through the new “crimes against humanity” treaty that is currently under negotiation?

We have seen alarming steps taken by some member states to normalise the Taliban. Can the Minister assure the House that the UK will not normalise relationships with the Taliban? More than four years into the ban on girls’ education, can he point to improvements that have been made through our direct engagement with the Taliban? If there has been no such progress, what will be done differently?

Earlier, my hon. Friend mentioned Fawzia Koofi, who spoke to the International Development Committee. In her evidence, she told us that

“the main Taliban agenda is women.”

Does my hon. Friend agree that that point, and the point that she is making, demonstrate why the UK Government and our international allies must stand and promote the agenda that she is describing?

I entirely agree: it is a war on women, and we must make clear that we will not tolerate it.

There have been some welcome moves, including the announcement by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in January last year that he had applied to the Court for arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders. I am also pleased that the UK is supporting the case to hold the Taliban accountable for violations of the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women at the International Court of Justice.

Will the Minister also tell the House how we will use our role at the UN and on the Security Council to demand accountability? As a witness said at the United Nations Security Council meeting in March last year, if impunity is the disease, accountability is the only antidote.

I also make a broader plea to Members and to the media: we must keep attention on what is happening in Afghanistan. As I have said, women have told me that they feel forgotten and that the world has turned its back. We must do whatever little we can to show that we have not.

Thirdly and finally, the Minister will know that 2025 marked 20 years since the landmark agreement of resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, yet two decades on we are failing to live up to its promise. Afghanistan is a focus country for the UK, as is stated in the current national action plan for women, peace and security. We therefore have a particular responsibility for the peace and rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. Will the Minister give an update on how we are delivering that crucial plan? It is also imperative that women be at the table for any talks. We must always call for that, and we must lead by example by ensuring that all our delegations include women at the table.

The situation for women and girls in Afghanistan is devastating, but we must not give up. Afghan women certainly are not giving up. They are determined and inspiring, and despite the challenges that they face, they are still finding ways to run businesses and work on the frontlines. We cannot abandon them. We must play our role as a party—now in government—that has always championed women’s rights at home and abroad.

I thank my hon. Friend for her important and powerful speech and for giving voice to the plight of Afghan women. Does she agree that recognition of gender apartheid is an essential part of our foreign policy? After four years of direct engagement with the Taliban, it is perhaps the only way we can start shifting the debate.

I agree, and I welcome my hon. Friend’s support. Gender apartheid speaks to the systemic dismantling of a whole system of women’s rights, not individual cases of persecution. We should listen to the people who are calling for this, because it is a unifying call from many Afghan women.

If we turn our back on this crisis—on the gender apartheid unfolding in Afghanistan—we are failing not only Afghan women, but women everywhere. As Baroness Harman wrote recently,

“it is clear that we will not achieve global equality without tackling the systematic oppression of Afghan women and girls. The importance of this cannot be underestimated, not just for Afghan women, but for the hard-won rights and freedoms of women around the world.”

This is not just a moral issue. It is also a security issue, because we know that gender equality is essential for lasting and sustainable peace. We must hold true to our values, we must display them proudly as a sign of hope for the oppressed across the world, and we must do everything we can to uphold the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.