Rights for women are fast deteriorating in Afghanistan. In the latest major setback, a new set of vice and virtue laws have been laid out by the ruling Taliban, including rules prohibiting women from being heard or showing their faces in public in order to avoid leading men “into temptation”. Not only must women be fully veiled whenever leaving their homes, but they are not allowed to look directly at men who they are not related to. The UN and human rights groups have condemned the new laws, which also include a ban on the possession of photographs of people.
As the following chart shows, Afghanistan ranks in last place worldwide for the status of women on the Women, Peace and Security Index, jointly launched by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and The Peace Research Institute Oslo. Covering 177 countries and economies, the index is based on 13 indicators which fall under the categories of inclusion, justice and security.
Even prior to the tightening of laws, Afghanistan had ranked as the worst country in the world to be a woman since 2021. The report writers expand on this score with regard to several poignant examples. In terms of political violence targeting women, the Taliban is known to have carried out revenge killings and forced disappearances of women activists. In terms of maternal mortality, Afghanistan has the eighth-highest rate in the world, standing at 620.4 deaths per 100,000 live births, as medical care has worsened under the isolated regime of the Taliban.
Other low-ranking countries include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Yemen. At the other end of the spectrum, Denmark, Switzerland and Sweden are considered the three best countries in terms of women’s status, with all five Nordic countries rank among the top seven.
