Human Rights Watch: 2026 Taliban Laws Deepen Repression of Women, Minorities in Afghanistan

A new set of Taliban laws issued this year has further formalized restrictions on women, girls, religious minorities and dissent in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said Monday, as the country approaches the fifth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power on Aug. 15.

In a release and companion timeline published Aug. 3, the rights group said the 2026 legal changes deepen a broader crackdown that has unfolded since the Taliban captured Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, after the collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government. Women and girls remain at the center of that repression, according to Human Rights Watch, which said Afghanistan is still the only country in the world where girls are barred from education beyond the sixth grade. The group also said journalists, women’s rights defenders, civil society activists, religious minorities and other critics face censorship and repression, including arbitrary arrest, torture and other ill-treatment.

The newest measures are central to Human Rights Watch’s assessment. On Jan. 4, 2026, the Taliban issued a new criminal procedure code that, according to the group and legal analyses cited in its research, defines Muslims exclusively as followers of Hanafi jurisprudence, a Sunni Islamic legal tradition. Human Rights Watch said that framework treats other religious groups, including Shia Muslims, as heretics and imposes strict punishments that critics say are aimed at silencing dissent.

The same code also narrows legal protections for women, according to Human Rights Watch, by recognizing only “excessive” beating as domestic violence. The group also pointed to a new Preachers Law requiring clergy to adhere only to Hanafi jurisprudence, further tightening state control over religious expression.

Another 2026 measure, Decree No. 18, published May 14 and governing judicial separation of spouses, weakens or removes minimum-age protections and increases the risk of child marriage, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

The rights crisis is unfolding alongside severe humanitarian need. Human Rights Watch said more than 17 million people, about 40% of Afghanistan’s population, are projected to face acute food insecurity. That is separate from broader U.N. humanitarian planning figures: the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan that about 21.9 million people are in need of assistance and 17.5 million are being targeted for aid.

Human Rights Watch said that response plan is severely underfunded and that cuts by the United States, the United Kingdom and other donors have forced aid agencies to scale back programs. The group also said Taliban restrictions on female aid workers, including male-guardian requirements in some cases, have limited women’s access both to work and to assistance.

The report also highlights a growing tension between international accountability efforts and the way some governments are dealing with Taliban authorities on migration. Human Rights Watch said Iran and Pakistan have forced millions of Afghans to return. Germany resumed deportation flights to Afghanistan in August 2024. More recently, on June 22, 2026, European Union officials hosted a Taliban delegation in Brussels for migration-related talks.

At the same time, international efforts to document and prosecute abuses have advanced. On Oct. 6, 2025, the U.N. Human Rights Council created an independent mechanism to investigate violations in Afghanistan and preserve evidence. Earlier, on July 8, 2025, the International Criminal Court, the world’s permanent war crimes tribunal, issued arrest warrants for Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani on charges tied to gender-based persecution.

“The fifth anniversary of the Taliban takeover is a grim marker of the devastating costs of impunity. Governments should move beyond statements of concern and press for justice for serious crimes in Afghanistan, including the crime against humanity of gender persecution,” said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Abbasi also tied the rights crackdown to the worsening humanitarian and migration pressures. “Afghans, especially women and girls, have endured five years of repression and abuse. The international response should finally match the scale of the crisis by halting deportations to Afghanistan, protecting at-risk Afghans, and sustaining humanitarian funding for Afghanistan.”