Rights of Women and Girls: Afghanistan

Wendy Chamberlain Excerpts

Monday 5th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Alice Macdonald]

I thank the hon. Member for that important point. He is right. The Government have set out new proposals on immigration that have a focus on safe routes, and it is important that we stand with female human rights defenders from Afghanistan. Many of them came over here before there were those routes. It was not easy for them, and many people worked incredibly hard to make that happen. I hope that we can have safer passages, and that it can be much clearer how they can be accessed.

[Wendy Chamberlain (North East Fife) (LD)]

The hon. Member and I are members and officers of the all-party parliamentary group on Afghan women and girls. On the point about education and access to healthcare for women, we hosted a meeting last year with Dr Feroz, a former Health Minister in Afghanistan. He spoke movingly about the case for medical care for Afghan women. One of his key asks was for more support in Afghanistan for women to be trained as midwives to improve maternal outcomes. I am potentially anticipating the Minister’s response, and I know how challenging the situation is, but does the hon. Member agree that we should be able to discuss this from a bilateral perspective?

[Alice Macdonald]

I thank the hon. Member for her contribution, and for everything she has done as chair of the APPG. She has been advocating for Afghan women and girls for a long time. I totally agree, and I will come on to healthcare a bit later in my speech.

To return to education, Afghanistan is the only country in the world that bans girls from attending school beyond the primary level, depriving 1.5 million girls of secondary education. Those girls are stripped of their right to learn and their hopes and dreams for the future. On employment, the Taliban have incrementally removed women from professional roles. Instead, they are confined to their home. Over the past three months, we have heard that the Afghan Ministry of Defence and the Afghan army have reportedly prevented women employees from entering the UN compound and its premises across the country, forcing them to work from home, further isolating women and impacting on the effective delivery of aid.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alice Macdonald]

But still those women fight on. Women-led organisations continue to lead the way in so many different respects, delivering humanitarian assistance, supporting survivors and helping communities, all the while navigating life-threatening risks.

I know that the Minister cares deeply about Afghanistan and has huge experience there, and I urge him to continue to do everything possible to stand with Afghan women and girls. I welcome the appointment of Baroness Harman as the UK’s global envoy for women and girls, as she has made Afghan women and girls one of her priorities. Of course we cannot solve the crisis on our own, nor should we, but it is imperative that we play our part and that, importantly, we work with other countries that have influence on the Taliban and in the region.

I want to focus on three specific issues on which I think the Government could act, although they are already acting in many of these areas: aid, accountability and the women, peace and security agenda. Let me begin with aid. Just last week the United Nations launched a $1.7 billion humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan, warning that it will remain one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with 22 million Afghans in need of humanitarian assistance this year; but with major donor countries such as the United States turning away, whether that appeal is heard remains to be seen. Funding cuts have already forced the suspension of 218 gender-based violence service points, affecting more than a million people, mainly women and girls. In the light of our own aid cuts, may I ask the Minister to speak about our commitments to Afghanistan and, in particular, how we are ensuring that the money we spend reaches women and girls and human rights defenders?

[Wendy Chamberlain]

I thank the hon. Lady for giving way again. She is speaking powerfully about aid and contributions. May I briefly mention the global polio eradication initiative? Polio could be eradicated in the next three years, which would be a historic milestone for the world, but to do that the UK Government need to commit £50 million a year to the initiative for the next two years. Given how little we can do to support Afghan at present, this is one tangible action that the Government can take. Will the hon. Lady reiterate that call tonight?

[Alice Macdonald]

Absolutely. We were, of course, on the brink of eradicating polio. It exists in very few countries, and to see it surge again in countries such as Afghanistan risks so many development gains.

Can the Minister tell us how much is currently being spent on women’s rights and how much we will spend next year? Will he commit himself to protecting that funding for the future, and will he ensure that the money reaches the women’s rights organisations and women’s rights defenders on the frontline?

However, no amount of aid can address the human rights crisis in Afghanistan, and in that context I turn to my second point, about justice and accountability. Many Afghan women are calling for gender apartheid to be recognised as a crime in international law. Their call is now being taken up by a number of member states as well as international legal experts and lawyers, and I back that call. Can the Minister set out the Government’s position on recognising gender apartheid through the new “crimes against humanity” treaty that is currently under negotiation?

We have seen alarming steps taken by some member states to normalise the Taliban. Can the Minister assure the House that the UK will not normalise relationships with the Taliban? More than four years into the ban on girls’ education, can he point to improvements that have been made through our direct engagement with the Taliban? If there has been no such progress, what will be done differently?

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Mr Hamish Falconer)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North (Alice Macdonald) for securing this debate. I pay tribute to her for her work with the all-party parliamentary group on Afghan women and girls, and indeed to the other doughty champions for Afghan women represented in the Chamber this evening. As she alluded to, Afghanistan matters to me not only as a Minister, but as a person who knows the country well. I have first-hand experience of dealing with the Taliban, and I am determined that they should be held to account for their horrific treatment of women and girls.

My hon. Friend set out the situation well. She is right to point out that Afghanistan is now one of the worst places in the world to be a woman. Every single aspect of life is restricted by the Taliban. Girls cannot attend school after the age of 12. Women’s employment is almost entirely blocked. The sound of a woman’s voice outside her home is considered a moral violation. Millions are being systematically excluded from society and robbed of their future. Afghan women deserve meaningful, equal participation in all areas of life. These infringements on their freedoms must be reversed.

The UK Government have consistently condemned the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls. Senior officials travel regularly to Kabul, most recently in December, to urge the Taliban to reverse their barbaric decrees. On every visit, the treatment of women and girls is raised. Our officials press the Taliban to meet their international obligations, and we use our voice on the world stage to keep up the pressure. This includes speaking out at the UN, in the UN Human Rights Council and in our other international forums.

During my visit to the UN last January, I made it clear that the Taliban’s actions are unacceptable and that we will not allow the voices of Afghan women to be forgotten. In December, at the UN Security Council, the UK condemned the ongoing restrictions on female staff at the Islam Qala reception centre, which is near the border with Iran. We use our position as chair of the G7+ group to mobilise and co-ordinate international engagement on Afghanistan. We also support the initiative of key member states to hold the Taliban to account for violations of the UN convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.

I recognise the powerful calls to classify the situation in Afghanistan as gender apartheid. This is a complex and emotive issue. We are still determining our position, but we are actively engaging with civil society and international partners to understand all perspectives.

[Wendy Chamberlain]

I know the Minister’s commitment to and experience of Afghanistan. Before Christmas, the APPG, including the hon. Member for Norwich North (Alice Macdonald), met the UNHCR Afghanistan representative. As we know, many people are returning to Afghanistan from Pakistan, Iran and elsewhere, and they are often from single female-headed households, so they are doing so with a degree of trepidation. My understanding from that meeting is that that body receives no funding from the UK Government. Would the Minister consider looking at that, because that surely must be an item of leverage in the meetings with UK officials that he has described?

[Mr Falconer]

We are providing support to returnees from Iran to Afghanistan, and that support is mostly funnelled through the International Organisation for Migration. We have not yet announced our allocation of aid for Afghanistan next year, but we will of course come back to this House when we are in a position to do so.

This year, the Human Rights Council voted to establish an independent accountability mechanism. We are exploring how the UK can contribute meaningfully to that, especially as the scope and operational details become clearer.

There is a growing humanitarian crisis across Afghanistan, as my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North made so clear—23 million people are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. As the hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) highlighted, women and girls bear the brunt. Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth, with the highest maternal mortality rate in the Asia-Pacific region.

We remain committed to tackling this crisis. We have allocated more than £150 million this financial year for lifesaving aid to Afghanistan, ensuring that at least half of the beneficiaries are women and girls. Last November we hosted a successful food security and nutrition conference in London, strengthening our response to the hardships and hunger facing Afghan families. We are focusing on effective solutions, working alongside international partners and those in Afghanistan who know the country best.

Turning to human rights and accountability, we support the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on Afghanistan, Richard Bennett. I met him last year to discuss the situation, and we remain in regular contact with him. We also maintain regular engagement with Afghan women to hear their perspectives. I have met them, and the doughty Baroness Harriet Harman, the UK special envoy for women and girls, held a roundtable for Afghan women in September and attended a parliamentary event on sexual and reproductive health in November.

The UK special envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Lindsay, joined me to brief parliamentarians today. He regularly meets Afghan women both in the diaspora and in their home country. We seek their perspectives on how we can better support their cause and hold the Taliban to account. My hon. Friend the Member for North Northumberland (David Smith), the special envoy for freedom of religion or belief, recently met individuals from the Hazara community. They discussed the discrimination faced by Hazaras, including the plight of Hazara women and girls, and he and I remain focused on supporting such vulnerable communities.

In December, Foreign Office officials participated in the Hear Us conference led by Afghan women demanding accountability for Taliban human rights abuses. Their courage and perseverance in the face of adversity are profoundly inspiring, and their resilience commands my deep respect. Our work on accountability is strengthened by our close engagement with Afghan civil society, both in the UK and abroad.

Those responsible for international crimes in Afghanistan must be held accountable. The Taliban’s systematic erosion of the rights of women and girls is the destruction of every kind of freedom. The Foreign Secretary’s recently announced All In campaign reaffirms our desire to tackle violence against women and girls. At its launch, Dr Sima Samar, an Afghan human rights activist, was present and spoke about the appalling situation for women and girls in Afghanistan, making it a central focus of the campaign.

I have been privileged, both as a Minister and in my previous life, to meet many non-governmental organisations, activists, campaigners and politicians who want a better future for Afghan women and girls. Earlier today I hosted a briefing for parliamentarians on the latest situation. I look forward to meeting, on Wednesday, Chevening scholars from Afghanistan who are now studying in the UK. Some of these women had to be chaperoned out of Afghanistan to take up their studies here. Their studies—from psychology to human rights; from health to construction—put them in a strong position to shape tomorrow’s Afghanistan for the better.

[Wendy Chamberlain]

The Minister rightly mentions the Chevening scholarship scheme. I also commend the work of the Linda Norgrove Foundation in relation to the 19 female Afghan medical students who are brought to the UK to study at Scottish universities. That was really groundbreaking work between the UK and Scottish Governments on funding for their studies and the visas that allowed them to come. There are very small numbers of individuals who would like to do the same. Will the Minister take away that request to ensure we have that pipeline, so that hopefully in future those women can return to Afghanistan and provide the care that is required?

[Mr Falconer]

I am very happy to take that away.

In conclusion, the UK will continue to fight for the rights of Afghan women and girls, and will continue to urge the Taliban to reverse their barbaric decrees. As the Foreign Secretary recently said,

“there cannot be peace, security or prosperity without women playing their part, free from violence and free from fear.”

Question put and agreed to.