Desperate Afghans clinging to the sides of a US military aircraft taking off at Kabul's international airport are among the most harrowing images to emerge since Taliban fighters swept through the country and seized the capital.
Notably absent among the panicked crowds who forced a way onto the tarmac — desperate to escape Taliban rule — are women.
#Kabul Airport peoples trying to climbing on US troops Airplane . pic.twitter.com/ocnDMrXOJS
— Zia Karimi (@ZiaKarimi123) August 16, 2021
While girls and women have made gains these past 20 years, men are still far more likely to hold jobs, own savings and passports, and tend to enjoy greater status across society, facilitating any flight from Kabul when resources are tight.
Here are nine statistics on the state of inequality in Afghanistan — a chasm many now fear could widen as the Taliban come back to power.
1. In Afghanistan, the income of an average woman is less than 16% than of that of an average man, according to 2021 data.
Thank you for your leadership, Prime Minister, and for allowing me to share concerns I am hearing from women in Afghanistan. I urge the Security Council to pass a resolution to protect Afghan women, girls and minorities. https://t.co/tWAUoWk25z
— Malala (@Malala) August 16, 2021
2. Women in Afghanistan are outnumbered five to one by men in sectors that require higher skills, according to 2021 data.
3. Afghan women make up 4.1% of the country's senior and managerial positions, according to 2021 data.
4. As of 2017, women own and operate five in every 100 small businesses across the country.
5. In parliament, just 27% of members are women.
6. Afghanistan comes bottom of 156 countries when it comes to measuring what economic opportunity is open to women against the options on offer to men.
I am extremely disturbed by reports from areas captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) August 14, 2021
It is horrifying that hard-won rights are being ripped away from Afghan girls & women.
The @UN is determined to promote the rights of all Afghans & provide life-saving humanitarian support.
7. In 2017, there were nearly seven girls for every 10 boys enrolled in primary school, dropping to six girls for every 10 boys enrolled in secondary school.
8. The female literacy rate in Afghanistan is just over 53%, compared with 79% worldwide.
9. In 2015, researchers found that 46.1% of women aged 15-49 said they had been subject to physical or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner within the previous year.
SOURCES: Brookings Institution; The World Economic Forum; The United Nations; The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction; The World Bank