Hannah Neumann, member of the European Parliament, in a statement on August 15 urged governments to halt forced deportations, expand humanitarian visas, support Afghan women and human rights defenders, and “never legitimize the Taliban.”
“Four years after Aug. 15, Afghan women still resist. Let’s stand with them,” Neumann said.
She recalled that in 2021 the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan “as troops withdrew and many governments looked away.” Since then, she said, the international community has “failed to protect Afghan women, abandoned human rights defenders, and Germany broke promises to those who risked their lives for us.”
According to Neumann, repression under Taliban rule is “deeper than ever.” Girls are banned from school and university, women are barred from parks, workplaces and traveling alone, and even prohibited from laughing in public. “One decree after another forces them into hiding — dismantling their right to live in dignity,” she said, adding that post-traumatic stress rates are high.
She also condemned mass deportations, saying more than 2.1 million Afghans have been forced back from Iran and Pakistan since January 2025, most without due process. “Families torn apart, children detained with unrelated men, women and activists returned to danger,” she said. Among those deported are journalists, judges, women’s rights defenders, former officials and minorities, who on return face interrogation, disappearance and even execution “in clear violation of international law.”
Neumann criticized the German government for allowing deportations of Afghans promised protection for their work with ministries, the armed forces or NGOs. “I am deeply ashamed about my government,” she said.
Afghanistan today, she said, has more than 29 million people dependent on aid, collapsing health and education systems, and widespread poverty and trauma — “especially among women.” Deportees “return to nothing: no shelter, no work, no safety.”
Neumann warned that some governments are moving toward engagement with the Taliban. She pointed to Berlin’s recent accreditation of a Taliban representative for consular work to facilitate deportations of criminal Afghan nationals. “What a cynical deal,” she said.
Having visited Afghanistan twice since the Taliban takeover, Neumann said “not a meeting passed without someone mentioning Aug. 15 — the day their hope to build a different country was shattered. Today, it has been extinguished.”
“Let us never normalize violence against women and children, girls banned from education, hunger as a political weapon, gender apartheid, and deportations into danger,” she said.
She added: “We must act: stop forced deportations, expand humanitarian visas, support Afghan women and human rights defenders, hold perpetrators accountable, and never legitimize the Taliban.”
