The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has documented Taliban-related sexual violence in Afghanistan throughout 2025 in its latest report. According to the report, sexual violence increased sharply compared to 2024 and was carried out with extreme brutality. The report states that 15 women and six girls were subjected to sexual violence by Taliban members during 2025, with documented cases including gang rape, forced marriage, and forced nudity. According to the report, some women took their own lives as a result of the severe physical and psychological trauma inflicted by these crimes. Women who protested or spoke out against Taliban policies have also faced repression and torture.
The UN Secretary-General presented a deeply troubling report on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, with a particular focus on women, to the UNSC. The Council published the report recently, though its text indicates it was originally submitted in April 2026.
The report notes that despite the UN’s continued monitoring and response efforts, tightening restrictions on humanitarian access, combined with setbacks in women’s human rights, have severely constrained those efforts.
The report states that the Taliban have pursued repressive policies against women and girls in Afghanistan, even as those populations face acute humanitarian needs. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed that in 2025, Taliban members committed acts of sexual violence, including rape, gang rape, forced marriage, and forced nudity, against 15 women and six girls.
The UNSC emphasized that despite the Taliban’s announcement of a decree banning forced marriage, Taliban officials have continued to both commit and facilitate such marriages.
The Council cited the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights, noting that women who challenge or protest Taliban policies have been subjected to arbitrary detention. Detainees have also been subjected to torture and abuse, including sexual violence. The UNSC noted that the severity of the physical and psychological harm caused by these crimes has led to several reported suicides among women victims in Afghanistan.
Taliban Abolition of Women’s Protective Laws
Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, who submitted the report to the UNSC, stated that the Taliban have entirely dissolved all legal protections and specialized courts for women. He noted that there is currently no clear legal framework through which women can seek justice, and that all complaints related to gender-based violence are handled and suppressed by male Taliban officials.
The report also highlights that, alongside the collapse of the judicial system, the Taliban’s repeated disruption of internet access across Afghanistan has emerged as a major barrier preventing victims from obtaining information and reaching critical support services.
Collapse of the Healthcare System
The UNSC report states that due to cuts in international funding and the Taliban’s severe restrictions on the movement and work of female aid workers, more than 400 health centers and hundreds of specialized gender-based violence facilities that had previously received UN support were fully shut down by July 2025. The Taliban have also barred female UN staff from entering the organization’s offices, effectively dismantling the aid system for women in need.
The report further notes that the UN Human Rights Council has established an Independent Investigative Mechanism for Afghanistan. The mechanism’s mandate is to collect, document, and analyze evidence of international crimes and the most serious violations of international law, particularly those committed against women and girls, for potential use in international tribunals against Taliban leaders.
In conclusion, the UN Secretary-General called on the Taliban to immediately halt all acts of sexual violence, repeal laws and policies that violate women’s fundamental freedoms, and comply with UNSC resolutions. He also called for the immediate lifting of the ban on women working in international and non-governmental organizations.
The Hasht-e Subh Daily has previously documented cases of sexual violence, forced nudity, and coerced confessions of women held in Taliban detention centers and prisons through multiple investigative reports. In one such report, five female protesters who the Taliban had detained described accounts of physical and psychological torture, confirming that they were forced to make confessions while unclothed. The Hasht-e Subh Daily’s findings indicate that during interrogations at detention facilities, the Taliban order detainees to undress, and those who refuse are subjected to severe torture, including beating of their genitals.
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
