Title: A Silent Collapse: How Afghan Women-Led Civil Society Is Disappearing Under Taliban

I am sharing this story as an Afghan woman witnessing the systematic disappearance of women-led civil society under Taliban rule and international aid cuts. Across Afghanistan, women activists, educators, journalists, and humanitarian workers are being pushed out of public life. Organizations once led by women have closed, many female professionals have lost their livelihoods, and countless women now live in fear and isolation.

This is not only a political crisis. It is a human crisis affecting millions of Afghan women and girls whose voices are being erased behind closed doors.

I wrote this article to document what is happening and to make sure the world does not look away while Afghan women are silenced.

Originally published in Alliance Magazine:

https://www.alliancemagazine.org/blog/a-silent-collapse-how-aid-cuts-and-taliban-rule-are-erasing-afghanistans-women-led-civil-society/.

Story is here:

Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, Afghanistan’s women-led civil society has not just been struggling: it is disappearing.

What is unfolding is not only a humanitarian collapse, but a global failure of solidarity. As international donors retreat and the Taliban tightens its grip, the last remaining lifelines for millions of Afghan women and marginalised communities are being cut, silently and systematically. Since 2023, women-run clinics have shuttered, safe houses have gone dark, and grassroots schools for girls have been forced underground or closed entirely. In the shadows of this collapse are the women who once led these efforts, including activists, midwives, and educators, who are now unable to work, travel, or speak freely. Before 2021, Afghanistan relied on foreign aid for nearly 75 percent of public expenditure. That support funded maternal healthcare, education, legal aid, and women’s economic programmes. Since the Taliban takeover, most aid has been frozen or withdrawn, primarily in response to human rights violations. While the goal was to avoid legitimising the regime, the outcome has been devastating for those the aid was meant to protect. Funding freezes intended to punish the Taliban are instead punishing Afghan women, minorities, and human rights defenders.A chilling picture emerged in confidential interviews with Afghan civil society workers in July 2025. ‘We’ve lost nearly all our funding’, one woman said. ‘We used to operate six programmes; now we barely manage one. And even that one could close next month.’

The field study, which was conducted in July 2025, confirms the extent of this unravelling. Aid cuts have led to the closure of over 420 health facilities, affecting more than three million people. The United Nations estimates that 23 million Afghans now require urgent assistance, yet the infrastructure to provide such assistance is evaporating.The Taliban’s nationwide ban on women working in NGOs has only deepened the crisis. Humanitarian organisations such as Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council have suspended programmes that relied on female staff to reach women and girls in segregated communities. In rural areas, where cultural norms prevent male workers from interacting with women, this ban means that services simply no longer exist.Women-led civil society organisations, many of which spent two decades building community-based protections, have been hit especially hard, as their operations have been choked by both shrinking funding and new laws criminalising their existence. ‘We are being erased’, said one civil society leader, ‘not just from the streets, but from the fabric of Afghan life.’

Ethnic minorities, particularly the Hazara community, face compounded threats. In provinces such as Daikundi and Uruzgan, Hazara families have been evicted from their homes, denied food assistance, and left off distribution lists entirely. Reports from Human Rights Watch and KabulNow have documented how aid is systematically redirected toward Taliban loyalists. ‘It’s not just a humanitarian crisis’, an interviewee said, ‘it’s ethnic exclusion through starvation.’

And yet, against all odds, resilience persists. In basements and backrooms, women are still organising. Some civil society groups are using a limited platform to deliver digital cash transfers to female-headed households. Diaspora networks are funding informal schools and underground women’s clinics. Some women have started tailoring shops or tutoring services that double as social enterprises—quiet acts of defiance that provide both services and dignity.

But these efforts are unsustainable without external support. Afghan activists warn that the collapse of civil society will not only end critical services, it will destroy the trust, leadership, and institutional memory that took decades to build. ‘If we vanish now’, one said, ‘we may never come back.’

This is not just about humanitarian logistics, it is about global accountability.

International donors must move beyond risk aversion and take responsibility for the consequences of disengagement. Funding freezes intended to punish the Taliban are instead punishing Afghan women, minorities, and human rights defenders. The international community cannot claim to stand for gender equality while turning its back on those still risking their lives to uphold it.

Immediate steps must be taken: flexible, multi-year funding should be restored to local organisations, especially women-led ones; bureaucratic hurdles that block access to grants and licenses must be simplified; protection programmes for at-risk activists, including emergency visas and safe relocation, should be expanded; and, most importantly, Afghan women must be heard. ‘We’re tired of being spoken for’, said one activist. ‘We want a seat at the table.’

Civil society in Afghanistan is asking for partnership not charity.

Those leading the last remaining women’s organisations are not victims to be pitied; they are architects of resilience and courage. Supporting them is both a moral imperative and a strategic investment in Afghanistan’s long-term stability and the values the international community claims to uphold.

The world’s attention may have shifted elsewhere, but the consequences of neglect remain etched into the daily lives of women denied healthcare, girls barred from school, minorities displaced from their homes, and activists silenced by fear.

The future of Afghan civil society hangs by a thread. Whether it survives will depend not only on the courage of those working on the ground, but on whether the world chooses to stand with them or look away.

Farzana Adell is a UK – and Afghanistan-based researcher and consultant with over 15 years’ experience in gender, civil society, and humanitarian work. She focuses on women’s lived experiences in conflict-affected settings and advocates for locally led feminist responses.

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