Five Years Under Taliban Rule

Nearly five years after the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021, Afghanistan remains one of the world’s most severe yet increasingly overlooked humanitarian, political, and human rights crises. During this period, numerous international organizations, humanitarian agencies, advocacy groups, researchers, journalists, and Afghanistan’s civil society organizations have documented widespread developments affecting education, women’s rights, freedom of expression, forced displacement, humanitarian conditions, cultural heritage, governance, and civic space.

Although hundreds of reports have been produced over the past five years, opportunities to collectively reflect on this accumulated evidence remain limited. Equally absent has been a structured discussion about what these findings mean for future international engagement with Afghanistan.

Marking the fifth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power provides an important opportunity not only to remember what has been lost but also to assess what has been learned. It is a moment to connect documentation with policy, evidence with action, and research with practical recommendations for governments, international organizations, universities, and civil society.

This event seeks to bring together organizations that have documented Afghanistan over the past five years alongside activists, resisting figures, scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and members of Afghanistan’s diaspora to reflect on the evidence, identify emerging lessons, and discuss realistic policy pathways for the years ahead.