International Development Committee
7 July 2026
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International Development Committee House of Commons
00:00 - 00:14
Speaker 2
This is the International Development Committee's session on the situation in Afghanistan. We've got three different panels today. I wonder if we could start with our first witness and over to Janet.
00:14 - 00:21
Speaker 1
Good afternoon, Ms Akbar. Could you please describe the current situation for women and girls in Afghanistan?
00:21 - 01:35
Speaker 3
Thank you. Yes, the current situation for women and girls in Afghanistan is the worst women's rights crisis in the world. Women are deprived of all their fundamental rights and liberties. Girls above age 11 cannot formally attend school. Women cannot access healthcare and public services without a man accompanying them, an adult family member accompanying them.
Women cannot participate in politics or hold positions in the government beyond police search of other women. Women are banned from all sectors of work except healthcare and education, and that too of course teaching girls till grade six. Women are continuously harassed on the streets by the moral police, by Taliban's moral police, for their outfit, for not conforming to Taliban's restrictions, which includes covering the face, just with the eyes being able to see with the eyes. The restrictions started since Taliban took over, but they were gradual, they were stage by stage. They started implementing them first in Kandahar and then slowly, which where the supreme leader of the Taliban is, and then slowly expanding them.
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