Why the world must stop looking away from Afghan women

Hadiya from the LEARN Journalism Club in Afghanistan

17-year-old Hadiya from the Afghanistan Newsroom demands real action from the West, not just hashtags and headlines

Since the Taliban returned to power, I’ve watched my dreams shrink. As a teenage Afghan girl, I’ve felt the silence grow louder every day – in classrooms that are now closed to many of my friends, in the fear of speaking up, and in the disappearing support from the world. It’s not just about hashtags anymore; it’s about our lives. And I wonder: will anyone truly stand with us when it matters most?

At 7.15am on 23 September 2021, the iron gate of our high school slammed shut – first on our uniforms, then on our futures. A guard shouted, “Girls, go home!” Our class WhatsApp group filled with tearful voice notes. By evening, the hashtag #StandWithAfghanGirls was trending worldwide. For a moment, it felt like the world was watching.

Four years later, that spotlight has gone dark. The hashtags have vanished. The headlines have moved on. And Afghan women have been left behind in silence.

Since the Taliban’s return, the situation for women and girls has worsened considerably. More than 1.4 million girls have been banned from secondary and higher education, and women have been pushed out of most jobs, even humanitarian work. Rights groups now call this system gender apartheid.

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Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis deepens. The World Health Organization warnedthat 80% of the health clinics it supports in Afghanistan may close this year – by March, 167 clinics had already shut down.

Performative solidarity doesn’t change reality. Tweets don’t unlock school gates. Filtered profile pictures don’t protect girls on their way to underground classrooms. Press releases don’t restore women’s names to payroll lists.

Instead, this is what real action looks like:

• Targeted sanctions against Taliban officials enforcing gender-based bans.
• Dedicated funding for underground schools and digital learning, led by Afghan educators.
• Direct aid to women-led organisations, bypassing Taliban ministries.
• Guaranteed media space for Afghan women – including op-ed access, translation support, and interviews with Afghan female voices.

Afghan women are not helpless victims. We are journalists, coders, entrepreneurs and leaders – silenced not by weakness, but by force.

To the governments, influencers and institutions that once promised not to forget us: silence is a choice. Apathy is a betrayal. Every day you look away, another girl folds away her school uniform and files her future under impossible.

Let the next hashtag be the sound of a school bell ringing open, not a memorial.

Stand with us, not just when we trend, but while there is still time to reopen the gates that once closed on a September morning.

Written by:

Hadiya

Afghanistan

Contributor

LEARN Journalism Club

Illustration by Yuliia Muliar

Born in 2008, Hadiya is currently studying journalism through the joint project between Harbingers’ Magazine and LEARN Afghan.She is particularly interested in medical issues and plans to study heart surgery.

In her free time, Hadiya enjoys watching motivational videos, sharing news about various cultures and playing volleyball. She has a certificate from the Lee’s English course with the highest grades, and a diploma as a teaching assistant. She also studies other subjects online and has taken a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) class.

Hadiya speaks Dari and English.

Due to security concerns the author’s image and surname have been omitted

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