Bread, Work, Freedom! The Urgent Call for Action and Accountability in Afghanistan

Authors

• Nancy J. Newman
• Zubaida Akbar
• Mahwish Moazzam
• Sussan Tahmasebi

Abstract

This Article examines the systematic degradation of women and girls in Afghanistan since the Taliban reclaimed power in 2021, and the resulting violations of international human rights law. To provide context for the legal analysis, the Article includes a historical perspective of women’s rights before the takeover, as well as first-hand accounts of life under the current regime. Centering its legal analysis on Afghan women’s demands for “Bread, Work, and Freedom,” the Article explains how the Taliban’s edicts have criminalized women’s education, employment, and mobility, erasing women from public life in blatant violation of multiple international treaties and obligations. It explains the jurisdictional framework for holding the Taliban to account and analyzes how this institutionalized gender subjugation amounts to crimes against humanity and gender apartheid.

The Article is an urgent call for action to address the crisis. Recommendations include supporting international legal mechanisms for accountability, targeting sanctions on key Taliban rights abusers, including Afghan women in shaping Afghanistan’s future, and supporting Afghan refugees and civil society. The international community must heed Afghan women’s desperate pleas for human dignity and act now to provide them with some hope for the future.

Recommended Citation

Nancy J. Newman, Zubaida Akbar, Mahwish Moazzam, and Sussan Tahmasebi, Bread, Work, Freedom! The Urgent Call for Action and Accountability in Afghanistan, 49 UC Law SF Int'l. L.Rev. 59 (2026).
Available at: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_international_comparative_law_review/vol49/iss1/4