London, Afghanistan is often considered one of the worst places to be a woman, but the situation is more complex than just a women's rights crisis. It's a humanitarian disaster that affects how people access healthcare, education, food systems, and basic supports.
The Taliban has systematically removed women from public spaces, including work, healthcare, and education, forcing families to deal with limited access to services and pushing households into deeper economic and social vulnerability.
Recent examples include female healthcare workers being banned from entering UN offices, and women being turned away from aid organisations, hospitals, schools, and public institutions.
The situation is referred to as a form of gender apartheid, where people are banned from certain spaces or activities based on their gender identity. This discriminatory practice has been widely documented and continues to deteriorate daily.
The effects are cumulative, with each restriction reinforcing others and deepening the overall crisis. Removing women from professional spaces leads to schools losing teachers, hospitals losing trained staff, and aid networks losing access to half the population.
Humanitarian organisations face a stark choice: operate under restrictive conditions and risk legitimising them, or withdraw and leave people without support.
The longer the situation persists, the more the exclusion of women in Afghanistan risks becoming a normalised structure rather than an emergency.
