The “Rahyab Initiative,” in a detailed report, examined the human rights situation of persons with disabilities in Afghanistan from 2021 to 2025, focusing on health, education, employment, and access to justice. The findings reveal a painful truth: after the Taliban took control of the country, life became far harder for people living with disabilities. As international aid declined, healthcare services collapsed, education was restricted, especially for women and girls, and job opportunities disappeared. These changes pushed persons with disabilities further to the margins of society. They now face layers of hardship, including gender discrimination, deep poverty, poor infrastructure, high medical costs, and limited public awareness of their rights. These obstacles have blocked their access to basic services and robbed them of real chances to take part in social and economic life. Without focused support, strong programs, and equal access, the report warns that their human rights situation will continue to worsen.
On December 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the Rahyab Initiative released its report titled “Report on the Human Rights Situation of Persons with Disabilities in Afghanistan 2021–2025.” The organization explained that it used both quantitative and qualitative research methods, studying documents and conducting interviews with 100 persons with disabilities, 50 women, and 50 men, between the ages of 25 and 34 across eight different zones of Afghanistan. The goal of the report is clear: to present a full picture of the current situation, identify the main challenges, and offer practical recommendations to improve support policies.
The findings show that about 14 percent of Afghanistan’s population, nearly 4.4 million people, live with some form of disability. Among them, an estimated 2.5 million people, about 13.9 percent of the adult population, are persons with disabilities. Since 2021, humanitarian crises, rising poverty, and the collapse of healthcare services have driven these numbers even higher.
Main Causes of Disability in Afghanistan
The report identifies war and explosive materials as major causes of disability. Weaknesses in the healthcare system, including diseases such as polio and widespread malnutrition, also play a serious role. Social factors, including marriages between close relatives, further increase the risk of disability.
Economic Situation of Persons with Disabilities
Widespread and long-standing poverty has left persons with disabilities extremely vulnerable. The recent economic crisis has only deepened their suffering and made daily survival even more difficult.
Rehabilitation Services
After the Taliban took over and international aid declined, access to specialized services such as physiotherapy and prosthetic support dropped sharply. Women now face even greater difficulties because there are too few female healthcare workers. The absence of ramps has created serious challenges for 70 percent of women and 25 percent of men. Before 2021, 74 percent of men could access healthcare services, but that figure has fallen to 44 percent. For women, access dropped from 76 percent before the fall of the former government to just 36 percent.
Cost and Quality of Life
As treatment costs have risen and poverty has grown more severe, many families can no longer afford basic medical care. After 2021, women’s access to essential services fell from 24 percent to just 8 percent, nearly disappearing altogether. For men, access to services related to daily living costs declined from 66 percent to 32 percent.
Geographical Barriers
Long distances, poor transportation systems, and the absence of basic infrastructure such as ramps have made it difficult, and sometimes impossible, for people in rural areas to reach healthcare centers. About 47 percent of those interviewed said that distance and lack of transportation are the biggest barriers to medical care. Many must travel all the way to Kabul or provincial centers even for simple treatment.
One respondent described the deep divide between city and village life: “In Kabul, you can usually go to the nearest center. But if you go to remote villages, these services simply do not exist.”
Access to Education
Schools across the country lack basic facilities such as ramps, accessible classrooms, and learning tools like braille and sign language. As a result, many children with disabilities are forced to leave school. The ban on girls’ education above grade six has placed girls with disabilities under double discrimination and confined many of them to their homes. The shortage of specialized teachers has affected the education of 95 percent of men and 90 percent of women.
Social Barriers
Negative attitudes, mockery, and humiliation from classmates and even teachers have become serious obstacles for persons with disabilities. Sixty-five percent of women with disabilities reported that officials dismissed their complaints or treated them inappropriately.
Unemployment Rate
Unemployment among persons with disabilities remains extremely high. Most are either without work or survive through informal, low-income jobs such as street vending. Every woman and 90 percent of men said that discrimination and political favoritism in government hiring have shut them out of job opportunities.
Barriers in the Labor Market
Negative attitudes from employers and the lack of accessible workplaces, including the absence of ramps and lifts, continue to block persons with disabilities from entering the workforce.
Gender and Structural Discrimination
The report shows that women with disabilities have been almost completely pushed out of the labor market. The Taliban have ignored the three percent employment quota that the previous government set for persons with disabilities. Sixty percent of women and 10 percent of men identified gender restrictions as their main barrier to employment.
Legal Services
Access to Taliban legal and judicial institutions has become nearly impossible for persons with disabilities. Independent oversight and support organizations have been weakened or dissolved. Only 10 percent of women and 34 percent of men reported having any access to these courts.
Barriers to Accessing Legal Services
Courts lack facilities for persons with disabilities, public legal awareness remains low, and administrative corruption remains widespread. Eighty-five percent of women said they could not enter courts because they lacked a male guardian or their husband’s permission.
Women and Justice
The rule requiring women to have a male guardian has effectively blocked them from filing complaints or seeking justice. Many cases brought forward by women with disabilities are ignored.
The Rahyab Initiative stressed that disability in Afghanistan is both a cause and a result of poverty. Without a steady income, people cannot access healthcare or education, and this deepens their poverty even further. A wide and painful gap between rural and urban areas has left villagers nearly cut off from official services.
The report makes clear that deprivation does not come from disability alone. When disability combines with being a woman, belonging to a certain ethnic group, and living in poverty, discrimination multiplies.
The organization concluded that over the past four years, the rights of persons with disabilities have been seriously violated, pushing them into complete regression. The report’s authors called for strong monitoring systems to hold the Taliban accountable and urged that aid be tied to inclusive services. They also demanded that employment quotas and inclusion be restored in plans and called on civil society to launch awareness campaigns to fight stigma and social discrimination.
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
زندهگی در سایه تبعیض: فقر و محرومیت افراد دارای معلولیت در افغانستان
