Heather Barr from Human Rights Watch called Afghanistan's human rights situation following the recent political upheaval an "absolute disaster," particularly for women.

The associate director of the women's rights division at Human Rights Watch, Heather Barr, said that since the Islamic Emirate takeover on August 15, 2021, has been an absolute disaster for human rights in Afghanistan.

“The last year, since the Taliban takeover on August 15, 2021, has been an absolute disaster for human rights in Afghanistan. Afghans have been facing two different extremely severe crises at the same time. One is the humanitarian crisis, which has been driven largely by decisions made in foreign capitals, particularly in Washington D.C., which has stopped the economy from functioning and driven the majority of the country into hunger. The second crisis of course, is the Taliban’s attack on human rights, with extrajudicial killings, attacks on media freedom and very notably a rollback of most of the rights of women and girls,” she said.

This organization in its new report reviewed the one-year activity of the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan.

“After capturing Kabul on August 15, 2021, Taliban authorities have imposed severe restrictions on women’s and girls’ rights, suppressed the media, and arbitrarily detained, tortured, and summarily executed critics and perceived opponents, among other abuses,” the HRW report said.

Human Rights Watch said that the Islamic Emirate has broken multiple pledges to respect human rights and women’s rights since taking over Afghanistan a year ago, and the international community has been apathetic to the situation of Afghan women.

“We have been very disappointed in the international response to both of these crises, there has been a real lack of urgency about resolving the issue about the central bank, and there has been a lack of action about the human rights crisis as well, and the result of Taliban actions,” Heather Barr said.

"The international community should take meaningful and practical steps beyond meetings and announcements. Afghan women's hopes are on the international community, and the international community should not show worry and sadness by issuing statements and meetings,” said Mawloda Tawana, women’s rights activist.

"If this process continues in this manner, we will witness a really severe and serious humanitarian situation in the geography of Afghanistan,” said Munisa Mobariz, another women’s rights activist.

Meanwhile, women's rights defenders ask the international community to pay attention to this issue.

"Afghan women have been deprived of their right to employment and educational opportunities, and the strict laws that have lately been imposed on Afghan women have made the situation for Afghan women very hard," said Khatera Hesar, women’s rights activist.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in this report that in one year of the Islamic Emirate, poverty in Afghanistan has increased, and millions of children are facing severe malnutrition.

“The economy has collapsed, largely because governments have cut foreign assistance and restricted international economic transactions. More than 90 percent of Afghans have been food insecure for almost a year, causing millions of children to suffer from acute malnutrition and threatening serious long-term health problems,” the report reads.