WASHINGTON — Five years after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, a sobering new assessment finds that Afghan women have been all but “erased” from public life under the Taliban’s restored rule, according to a report highlighted by Breitbart News.
The report, released to mark the anniversary of the August 2021 pullout, paints a stark picture of systematic erasure: women barred from secondary and higher education, excluded from most forms of employment, and stripped of the right to appear in public without a male guardian. The findings underscore the extent to which the gains made by Afghan women over two decades of U.S. presence have been reversed since the Taliban retook Kabul as American troops departed.
Breitbart’s coverage frames the anniversary as a “disaster” and points to the current status of Afghan women as the most visible symbol of that failure. The outlet quotes activists and women inside Afghanistan who describe a society in which their presence has been deliberately removed from view — not just from government and schools, but from parks, gyms, and other everyday spaces.
A Return to Shadows
According to the report, the Taliban’s decrees have effectively confined women to their homes. Many of those who once worked as doctors, teachers, and civil servants have been replaced by men or have lost their livelihoods entirely. The few women who remain in public roles, such as healthcare workers, operate under constant fear of harassment or violence.
One Afghan woman quoted in the report says she feels as though she has been “erased from existence,” a sentiment echoed by others who describe the past five years as a slow, deliberate dismantling of their rights. The report notes that girls who were in primary school when the Taliban took over are now entering adolescence with no formal education, and female university students who were told to go home have never been allowed to return.
The international community’s response, the report argues, has been insufficient. Despite repeated condemnations and promises of engagement, no country has formally recognized the Taliban government, and aid programs aimed at supporting Afghan women have struggled to operate under the group’s restrictions.
The Political Aftermath
The anniversary has reignited political debate in Washington over the withdrawal. Critics of the Biden administration’s handling of the exit point to the plight of Afghan women as evidence that the pullout was both strategically and morally flawed. Defenders of the decision argue that the United States could not remain in Afghanistan indefinitely and that the Afghan government’s collapse was ultimately the responsibility of its own leadership and military.
Breitbart’s report places the blame squarely on the Biden administration, describing the withdrawal as a “disaster” and highlighting the president’s earlier assurance that Afghan women would not be left behind. The outlet notes that Biden had publicly promised that the United States would continue to support Afghan women’s rights even as troops departed.
Five years on, that promise appears hollow. The Taliban’s gender apartheid has closed girls’ schools in most provinces, banned women from most jobs, and ordered them to cover fully in public. The report also documents the disappearance of women from public transportation, restaurants, and even the streets of major cities like Kabul and Herat, where their absence is a daily reminder of the regime’s ideology.
A Generation at Risk
Advocates warn that the long-term damage could be irreversible. An entire generation of Afghan girls has now grown up under Taliban rule, with no memory of the relative freedoms that existed between 2001 and 2021. The report cautions that without urgent action — including sustained diplomatic pressure and humanitarian aid — the Taliban’s erasure of women will become the new normal for years to come.
Some Afghan women have managed to flee the country, joining diaspora communities in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. But for those who remain, the report says, the situation is dire. Many are trapped in poverty, isolated at home, and suffering from mental health crises with little access to support.
As the anniversary passes, the report serves as a stark reminder of the human cost of the withdrawal. For Afghan women, the promise of a better future was not just unfulfilled — it was actively dismantled, brick by brick, under the eyes of the world.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2026/08/13/afghan-women-erased-by-taliban-five-years-after-bidens-pullout-disaster/