Among Afghans, there is a saying: “A woman can only be defeated by a woman.” Today, in Afghanistan, this painful truth plays out daily as Taliban-aligned women enforce the very rules that strip their sisters of freedom and dignity. 

The Female Face of Control 

The Taliban’s restrictions have already erased women from schools, workplaces, and public spaces. What makes this reality even harder to bear is that women themselves are sometimes the ones enforcing it. As The Diplomat reports, Taliban women are not passive followers but active participants who “willingly uphold and enforce the regime’s harsh ideology, fully embracing the strict roles assigned to them.” 

Some infiltrate women’s protest networks, reporting safe houses and underground classes to authorities. Others monitor workplaces, schools, and hospitals, identifying female staff and pushing for their dismissal. Even on social media, they track Afghan women using online platforms to learn or connect, forwarding names to the Taliban. One activist explained, “Rebellious Afghan women can be beaten to death by Taliban men, but we will never be silenced – until Taliban women rise against us. That betrayal wounds deeper than any lash.” 

A Deeper Betrayal 

Taliban women do not see themselves as sisters in struggle but as a separate, superior class. One activist shared chilling words she heard: “They claim to be the only true and perfect version of womanhood – pure and pious – while branding us as unclean and corrupt. To them, we cannot be cleansed or reformed, only extinguished.” 

This mindset has turned women into enforcers of the very system that erases their gender from public life. The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has used women as informants to police morality, from dress codes to daily behavior. The result is a machinery of repression where women themselves amplify the message that Afghanistan has no place for independent, educated, or working women. 

Erasing Connection and Hope 

The crackdown goes beyond physical spaces. As women sought to continue their education or work remotely, the Taliban responded by tightening restrictions on internet access. For many, online platforms were the last connection to learning and the outside world. By cutting digital lifelines, the Taliban, with the help of female enforcers, have attempted not only to silence women but to erase their visibility altogether. A 16-year-old girl put it bluntly: “Our existence is not acceptable to Taliban men. But to Taliban women, even our breath is unbearable.” 

History Will Remember 

History may one day record Taliban women not as victims but as collaborators, women who chose to weaponize their gender against others. This is not just regulation, it is a declared war on women, carried out by both men and women who defend the regime’s ideology. 

Yet, even in the face of this betrayal, Afghan women continue to resist. They run underground schools, speak out online, and protect what fragile spaces remain. Their courage persists, but as The Diplomat warns, without international support, that hope risks being extinguished. 

What the World Must Do 

The international community cannot treat this as another tragedy to watch from afar. Governments, NGOs, and global institutions must amplify Afghan women’s voices in international media, protect those who defend women’s rights, and hold the Taliban – including its female enforcers – accountable for violations. Sanctions, aid, and diplomatic engagement should all be tied to the protection of women’s rights. 

The stakes are immense. If the world does not act, an entire generation of Afghan women and girls could be erased. Their resistance is powerful, but they cannot carry the burden alone. The time to stand with them is now.