UN Women Urges World to Listen to Women, Not Control Them

UN Women says women do not need anyone’s approval to live their lives, as Afghan women continue to face severe restrictions on movement, dress and public life.

UN Women said women do not need anyone’s approval to live their lives and called for societies to stop trying to define how women should think, dress, behave or exist. In a message posted on X on Monday, the agency said women’s voices should be heard rather than controlled, underscoring a broader global call for dignity, autonomy and equal rights.

The agency said the world should “stop telling women how to feel, how to dress, how to behave and how to live their lives,” arguing that women themselves must be the ones to define their futures. Although the message was framed broadly, it resonated strongly in the Afghan context, where women and girls have faced some of the world’s harshest restrictions in recent years.

Nearly five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, sweeping restrictions continue to shape nearly every part of women’s daily lives, including education, employment, movement and public participation. UN Women has repeatedly described Afghanistan as the site of the world’s most severe women’s rights crisis, warning that the continued erosion of freedoms is becoming dangerously normalized.

Recent UN findings have also highlighted how those restrictions are affecting women’s access to justice, services and protection. In March, UN agencies said women in Afghanistan were nearly four times less likely than men to have access to formal justice mechanisms, reflecting a widening gap that leaves many women without safe ways to seek help or challenge abuse.

UN Women has also warned that restrictions on Afghan women working with the United Nations and aid agencies are undermining life-saving services, especially in a country already facing displacement, disaster and economic hardship. The agency says assistance for women in Afghanistan must be delivered by women, and that continued barriers are putting both rights and humanitarian response at risk.

Since August 2021, Afghan women and girls have been subjected to successive decrees limiting their access to secondary and higher education, most employment, public spaces and independent movement. UN Women says none of the major restrictions imposed since the Taliban’s return has been reversed, and that the long-term social and economic consequences are deepening across the country.

UN Women’s latest message serves as both a universal call for women’s autonomy and a pointed reminder of the reality facing Afghan women today. As international concern grows over the normalization of these restrictions, rights advocates continue to stress that listening to Afghan women, rather than speaking for them or controlling them remains essential.

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