Will the West choose complicity or courage? Afghan women need to know

For four consecutive years, the classroom at Zarghona Girls’ High School in Baghlan, where 40 girls once gathered in black uniforms with white scarves, has stood silent. The desks sit empty, and the blackboard is untouched. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls are systematically banned from secondary and higher education. What began as a temporary restriction has hardened into state policy.

This is not a cultural nuance or a transitional phase – it is the formalisation of gender persecution. Girls have lost access not only to education but to participation in public life. Despite vocal concern, key international actors – including UN agencies constrained by limited mandates, Western governments that have largely disengaged, and major donors who have scaled back funding – have yet to mount a coherent or effective response.

More than 2.2 million girls are now out of school. University enrollment for women has collapsed. Women have been banned from most forms of work, barred from parks and public spaces, and forbidden from travelling without a male guardian. This exclusion is totalising. It affects not just women and girls, but entire families, communities and economies.

Since 2021, the Taliban has issued over 100 edicts restricting women’s rights. Yet there is still no global framework to monitor these violations or to hold those responsible to account. Sanctions have been piecemeal. Funding for women’s rights has dwindled. And Afghan women’s voices remain largely absent from international decision-making platforms.

This is why we launched the Friends of Afghan Women Network (Fawn) — a UK-based initiative dedicated to supporting Afghan women through direct action, international partnership and strategic advocacy.

I co-founded Fawn with the journalist Sarah Sands to ensure that Afghan women are not forgotten. Our work focuses on creating a global partnership network, focused on digital literacy, support for women-led businesses, and the convening of policymakers, researchers and business leaders to ensure Afghan women remain part of international conversations – even when they are excluded from national ones.

We are proud to announce that Sue Gray has joined Fawn as chair of our advisory board.

“I feel honoured that my first role since leaving government is to be invited to chair the Friends of Afghan Women Network. Afghan women are being systematically removed from their own society,” said Gray. “This is not simply an issue of education. It is a question of human dignity, of rights, of global responsibility. I’ve been privileged to work with governments who have worked hard to improve human rights, and I will take this learning into this role. The world must not legitimise any process that sidelines Afghan women. It must continue to support Afghan women and girls. We must all pull together to do better.”

Afghan women once made up 27 per cent of civil servants and over 20 per cent of university students. There were female judges, parliamentarians, journalists and engineers. These gains, though uneven, were real. And now they are gone.

The cost of this reversal is measurable. The World Bank estimates that gender inequality in the labour market can reduce a country’s GDP by more than 20 per cent. Afghanistan, already facing economic freefall, cannot afford this exclusion. Nor can the international community, which has invested billions over two decades, afford to continue to disengage.

Fawn’s model is built on three pillars: visibility, agency, and action. First, we work to amplify Afghan women’s voices across policy spaces and media platforms. Second, we provide mentoring and business support to women forgotten in today’s Afghanistan. Third, we work with global actors – including private companies – to explore safe, remote opportunities for Afghan women to generate income and maintain independence.

The international community must now move beyond symbolic gestures and adopt a principled, coordinated approach. Diplomatic engagement with the Taliban must be conditional on measurable progress on women’s rights. This means tying any political recognition, development assistance or sanctions relief to the restoration of access to education, employment and freedom of movement for women and girls.

Equally critical is the need for direct funding to women-led organisations working inside and outside Afghanistan. These groups understand the terrain – often literally – and are best placed to deliver support where it is needed most. Yet they remain chronically underfunded, sidelined in favour of larger, often male-dominated NGOs.

The exclusion of Afghan women is not inevitable. It is the result of choices – by those in power, and by those who remain silent. But solidarity, when strategic and sustained, is powerful.

The question now is not whether Afghan women will persevere. They will. The question is whether the rest of the world will choose complicity or courage.