Nearly one million Afghans have returned from Iran in recent weeks, most of them forcibly, to a country grappling with economic collapse and severe restrictions on women, according to aid agencies and returnees.
Women in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan remain barred from secondary and higher education, most employment and public leisure spaces. “I am very hopeless,” said Azita Nezhad, a teacher and publisher who secretly opened a school for girls in Kabul after being forced back. “I don’t think Afghanistan or the situation for women will change in the coming years,” she told Australia’s ABC News.
Nezhad left for Iran last year seeking freedom to study and work, inspired by her late writer father’s encouragement. Her hopes ended when her visa expired and she had to return to Kabul. “We carried dreams and hopes with us when we left Afghanistan,” she said. “Now I am surrounded by despair.”
Afghanistan is facing “the most severe women’s rights crisis in the world,” the United Nations says. Men also report hardship and humiliation on return. Darwish Prawani, who sent eight family members to Iran and Turkey for work, said they endured harsh conditions and mistreatment abroad. Back in Kabul, his family now burns plastic and paper for cooking fuel and lives without water or electricity.
Former construction worker Mir Mohammad Nazari said his family was “humiliated and cheated” when expelled from Iran after 16 years. He alleged Iranian authorities withheld wages and demanded bribes during the exit process.
More than half of Afghanistan’s population is in need of humanitarian aid, according to UNICEF. Afghan and international rights groups have urged Iran to exercise restraint toward Afghan migrants amid mass deportations.
