The world pledged solidarity with Afghan women. Where is the world now?

Four years after the Taliban returned to power, Afghanistan's most vulnerable people at centre of deepening humanitarian crisis

An Afghan woman, deported from Iran, waits to register at a camp for returning migrants near the Islam Qala border crossing in Herat province, Afghanistan, in July. Reuters

The world vowed to stand with Afghan women after the Taliban captured Kabul four years ago on Friday. Today, they are among the worst affected by an overlapping series of crises, aid workers warn.

Widespread food insecurity, shrinking aid supplies, climate disasters and the mass forced return of refugees are deepening Afghanistan’s humanitarian emergency. But it is women and children who are paying the highest price as aid agencies struggle to meet the needs of an impoverished population amid global funding cuts.

Last October, nutrition experts warned that 2025 could see the highest surge in acute malnutrition ever recorded in Afghanistan, with pregnant women and children under five most at risk.

“That dramatic prediction has been surpassed,” John Aylieff, the World Food Programme's director for Afghanistan, told The National. “More and more children are being rushed to our health clinics due to malnutrition. We cannot afford to treat or feed them all.

“Mothers are walking for hours to reach us, only to be turned down. It's heartbreaking for the women and the staff, but our hands are tied.”

Nearly 15 million Afghans require emergency food assistance, according to the WFP, yet the agency can only support six million people each month.

I'm imploring the world to come to the rescue of Afghans. There is no better time than now

John Aylieff,
World Food Programme director for Afghanistan

“That seems like a luxury now,” said Mr Aylieff. “By October, we will run out of funding entirely.”

The US had been Afghanistan's largest humanitarian donor throughout its two-decade war with the Taliban. Even after the 2021 withdrawal of US troops, which resulted in the Taliban's return to power, Washington kept a lifeline going for Afghans, providing more than 40 per cent of aid including food assistance and health services. That lifeline was cut off when President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, swiftly pausing foreign assistance programmes.

Other donor governments – including Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK – also announced cuts to their global aid budgets this year. The result was a significant decline in assistance to the world’s most vulnerable, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, which had to close some of its offices and lay off staff in Afghanistan.

The cuts are a concern because Afghanistan has long relied on foreign assistance, said Samira Rahman, advocacy director of Save the Children in Afghanistan. “It was foreign aid that helped prevent famine in Afghanistan once, but we’re concerned with what the future will look like,” she told The National.

Mass return

The forced mass return of Afghans from neighbouring countries is further exacerbating the crisis, with families returning to dire conditions. More than four million Afghans have been deported or pressured to leave Iran and Pakistan since September 2023, according to the UN's International Organisation for Migration. This year alone, nearly two million people have crossed the border.

“It's a crisis within a crisis,” said Ms Rahman. “Families are suddenly uprooted from their lives, sometimes arriving with only the clothes they're wearing and returning to a community under huge strain.”

A Taliban security officer stands guard in Kandahar in the week the group marks four years since it returned to power in Afghanistan. EPA

The scale and speed of those returns, especially from Iran, has made it “near impossible” for aid organisations and local authorities to respond adequately, she added.

One child returns to Afghanistan every 30 seconds, according to data from Save the Children, and they are among the most vulnerable groups, relying heavily on dwindling aid.

“Local communities have to share what little they have,” Ms Rahman told The National. About 3.5 million children in Afghanistan are already suffering from acute malnutrition, and 90 per cent of those under two are living in child food poverty, lacking access to a nutritious and diverse diet, according to Unicef.

More than 800,000 Afghan children have returned in recent months, many with no family, home or connection to their community. Ms Rahman said urgent international funding is needed to provide them with psychosocial support and essential services.

Families are suddenly uprooted from their lives, sometimes arriving with only the clothes they're wearing

Samira Rahman,
advocacy director at Save the Children in Afghanistan

“We need to ensure their returns are voluntary, safe and dignified, and we need long term support to reintegrate Afghan returnees so children can rebuild their lives,” she said.

Limited aid

The limited aid available in Afghanistan is often rationed to reach the country’s most vulnerable. For the WFP, that means widows with children and other households headed by women. With no job prospects and no means to make a living under Taliban rule, these women are “desperate for help”, said Mr Aylieff.

Since returning to power, the Taliban has imposed severe restrictions on Afghan women. Young women and girls are banned from attending universities and secondary schools, taking public or private sector jobs, and may travel only with a male guardian. Other restrictions prohibit women from speaking loudly or singing, reciting or reading aloud in public.

While the group had promised a new approach to women’s rights when it seized back power in 2021, “the reality is very different”, Sahar Fetrat, a women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, previously told The National.

Food shortages are worsening Afghanistan's problems after four years of Taliban rule. EPA

A hotline set up by the WFP in Afghanistan has seen a surge in calls from women “threatening to die by suicide if they don’t receive support”, Mr Aylieff said. “WFP was the only lifeline for many, and now they are left stranded,” he added.

A devastating drought in Afghanistan, described as one of the worst in decades, has further weakened the country’s agriculture-reliant economy. But even amid better climate and economic conditions, Afghan women are among those still at a disadvantage.

“There's a group of people whose situation does not improve with better harvest, as they are not farmers and not in the job market,” Mr Aylieff said. These include women who head households, elderly people and people with disabilities due to the war. They cannot cope without food assistance, he added.

“Afghan women to whom the world pledged solidarity four years ago are now watching their kids succumb to hunger in their arms,” Mr Aylieff said. “I'm imploring the world to come to the rescue of Afghans. At this point, it's about restoring humanity and protecting the extremely vulnerable from situations that are no fault of their own. There is no better time than now.”