You’ve heard it before. Women and girls pay a heavy price during humanitarian crises. She Said is an ongoing collection of reporting in which women offer glimpses of their lives, speaking with The New Humanitarian from situations of conflict and displacement, and other global emergencies.
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands
Five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, Afghan women and their supporters gathered last week on Amsterdam’s Dam Square to protest the continued erosion of women’s rights.
Rows of empty school desks and chairs stood across the square, with notebooks and yellow pens laid out on them: a visual reminder of the many girls whose educations have been cut short.
Sahar Shirzad, a Dutch-Afghan human rights activist and organiser with the Azadi Collective, led the crowd in a chant: “Azadi Afghanistan!” She asked: “What do we demand?” The crowd answered: “Let her learn!”
Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, international sanctions, frozen assets, and aid cuts have been intended to pressure the government over its treatment of women and girls. Yet the measures have also deepened economic hardship, weakened public services, and made it harder for businesses to access finance. Taliban restrictions have also compounded the economic damage.
Afghanistan has strengthened ties with Russia, China, India, Iran, and Türkiye, despite lacking widespread formal recognition. But closer diplomatic relations have done little to resolve practical problems for Afghans seeking visas, education, banking access, or work abroad. The situation has renewed calls for pragmatic engagement alongside continued pressure on human rights, even as some criticise this approach as only likely to embolden the Taliban while bringing limited to no easing of restrictions.
Mozhda Poyan/TNH
Empty school desks and chairs, along with notebooks and pens, symbolised the many Afghan girls whose educations have been cut short.
Mozhda Poyan/TNH
Sahar Shirzad, a Dutch-Afghan human rights activist and organiser with the Azadi Collective.
The demonstration in Amsterdam came as the European Union has been holding talks with the Taliban about the return of Afghan nationals. The EU does not recognise the Taliban government and says the talks are technical. But for Afghan women, the distinction between practical contact and normalisation matters.
Those at the demonstration offered different answers. Some argued that refusing to talk achieves little and can make it harder to address problems affecting ordinary Afghans. Others said engagement risks weakening pressure on a regime that has restricted women’s education, work, and public life. Deportations have sharpened the debate, with several interviewees warning about the risks facing Afghans returned to the country.
Here is what they said:
Melika Azimi, 20, Dolle Mina member and demonstration organiser
Azimi, a member of the Dutch feminist organisation Dolle Mina, initially questioned whether organising a demonstration would make a difference. But after seeing young Afghan girls post emotional videos asking people to stand behind them, she changed her mind.
“I realised that it would make a difference, because we are breaking that atmosphere. We are shouting that we see them and that we are fighting for them,” said Azima, who is Afghan by heritage but has never lived in Afghanistan.
After seeing footage of Afghan women protesting their arrests in Herat, she said she was struck by their courage. The ensuing crackdown left at least one person dead and several injured: “They were killed, yet they kept going. I felt so inspired by them; I could not do otherwise.”
Azimi said she believes there should be communication with the Taliban, but worries that engagement could become a compromise that encourages further human rights abuses.
“I understand that every country acts in its own interests, but I wonder where the line lies between tactical communication and compromising our values,” she said. “I think there should certainly be more discussions about the Taliban regime. Let’s address the elephant in the room: Do we really have so little backbone? Do we no longer stand for basic human rights?”
Sadia Tayeb Sadat, 19, student living in Kabul
Sadat was in eighth grade when the Taliban returned to power and girls’ schools were closed. She said she had hoped to become a dentist: “My dreams were put on hold, and I felt that my future had been taken away from me.”
Interviewed via text and voice messages from Kabul, Sadat said international discussions about Afghanistan have increasingly focused on migration, deportation, security, humanitarian aid, and diplomatic engagement, while the situation of Afghan women has become less central.
“I think many Afghan women now feel forgotten. When the world’s attention faded, our struggles continued, but fewer people were listening,” she said.
“Practical engagement may sometimes be necessary to help ordinary Afghans, but if that engagement gradually turns into acceptance of the Taliban as a normal and legitimate government, the international pressure for women’s rights could become weaker,” Sadat added.
For her, engagement should come with clear principles, with women’s rights and girls’ education remaining part of every serious conversation about Afghanistan.
“You can speak to the Taliban without forgetting the people who live under their rule,” she said. “Engagement should not mean silence about women’s rights.”
Jalwa Rahimi, 22, Afghan woman living in the Netherlands
Rahimi spent 20 years in Afghanistan before moving to the Netherlands eight months ago. She came to the demonstration because she wants girls’ schools to reopen beyond the sixth grade.
“It is education that creates a country,” she said. “The right of a woman is to study. If she wants to work, she can work.”
Rahimi supports European cooperation with the Taliban, arguing that talking to them does not necessarily mean recognising them.
“By talking, you can solve difficulties,” she said. “They don’t have to recognise them, but they can talk about the problems of Afghans.”
She also opposes deportations and warned that if Europe and the United States continue sending Afghans back, other countries could follow.
“If Afghanistan is good, no one would want to come here,” she said. “If the world forgets Afghanistan, there will be nothing left.”
Hamasa, 42, former teacher and women’s rights activist
For Hamasa, who prefers this adopted activist name for security reasons, the consequences of the Taliban’s rule are not abstract.
She lived in Afghanistan until January 2025 and now lives in an asylum centre in the Netherlands. She turned her home into a classroom, teaching girls and women for free; she said she initially taught 63 students.
After the Taliban takeover, she joined protests demanding education for girls and the right for women to work. She said Taliban fighters beat and kicked protesters during a September 2021 demonstration, causing her to lose her unborn child. She later said she was arrested and tortured after the Taliban discovered a gathering she had organised, and that threats against her family prompted her to leave Afghanistan.
She is strongly opposed to deportations. Questioning why European governments would demand rights for women at home while accepting their denial in Afghanistan, she said: “I want to ask the European government how they want democracy for their people, that women go to school; they should have the same wish for Afghanistan.”
On deportations, she asked: “And the European countries that unfortunately deport Afghans from their countries, and when those Afghans come to Afghanistan they die, don’t they regret doing this?”
Laura Iqbal, 35, Party for the Animals representative and Dolle Mina co-founder
Iqbal, who is Dutch and whose father was born in Pakistan, is a prominent Dolle Mina activist and was a candidate for the Party for the Animals in Amsterdam. “There is no ‘pragmatic’ middle ground with a regime that erases half of the population from society. The Taliban are waging a systematic, institutional war against women. We call that: gender apartheid,” she said.
Iqbal was particularly critical of European cooperation over deportations, arguing that it risks legitimising the Taliban while undermining the women protesting against them.
“European governments claim to stand up for women’s rights, but make those principles subordinate to a cruel migration agenda. You cannot say you are protecting human rights while making deals with the oppressors.”
Iqbal said European governments should instead stop deportations and put greater pressure on the Taliban. She also argued that European governments should involve Afghan women and women’s rights defenders in decisions about Afghanistan.
Meena Maryam Ahmad, 16, Afghan girl living in France
Ahmad, who was not at the protest, left Afghanistan in 2023, citing the closure of girls’ schools, a lack of job opportunities, and uncertainty about the future. She had been in eighth grade when the Taliban returned to power.
Interviewed via text and voice messages from France, she recalled watching her brothers continue their education while she was unable to do so: “I often felt sad and hopeless when I saw my brothers going to school while I was unable to continue my education.”
She said global attention on the plight of Afghan women has decreased even though the situation for women and girls has not improved.
“Sometimes I feel that the world has become used to the suffering of Afghan women,” Ahmad added.
She had a direct message for Europe’s politicians and lawmakers: “I want to tell European policymakers that Afghan women are not just a political issue; we are people with dreams and futures. If they negotiate with the Taliban, they should not forget the rights and voices of Afghan women.”
Despite the hardships of the past five years, she said she has not lost hope.
“I truly believe that no one can destroy a girl’s dreams forever. We are not only victims; we are women who continue to stand despite all the pain. We still have dreams, and we will continue to fight for a better future.”
Petra Hoogerwerf, Dutch strategic adviser to charities and non-profits
Hoogerwerf, a Dutch supporter of Afghan women who was at the demonstration, drew a distinction between necessary practical contact with the Taliban and normalisation of the regime.
She said contact can sometimes be necessary to facilitate humanitarian aid and support the Afghan population, but worries when returns and deportations become a major driver of engagement.
“Afghan women must not pay the price for European migration policy,” she said. “Necessary practical contact can only take place if the rights and position of women and girls remain firmly on the table. Diplomatic contact may be necessary for humanitarian and practical matters; normalisation is something else.”
She also called for continued political and financial support for organisations working with Afghan women and girls, and urged policymakers to listen directly to Afghan women.
“Not only talk about them, but with them,” she said.
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