Four Years After the Taliban’s Takeover, Afghan Women Deported from Iran Return to a Country They Barely Recognize

Bibi Gol* sits in ‘zero point’, at a crowded border zone between Iran and Afghanistan, surrounded by her children. Carrying just a few essential belongings, it took the family three days to arrive at the border and cross into Afghanistan. The mother of four doesn’t know what comes next. 

“We have no home and no source of income in Afghanistan,” she said. “We once had a house here, but when the Taliban returned to power, we were forced to flee. Later, we sold that house just to survive.” 

Originally from a small town in Afghanistan’s Herat Province, Bibi is one of countless Afghan women who crossed into Iran after the Taliban seized control in August 2021. The family lived there without legal documentation for two years; but everything changed this summer when the deportation orders came. 

Local estimates claimed approximately 6 million Afghan nationals — both documented and undocumented — were based in the Islamic Republic, where many worked, rented homes, and attended school. But while Iran is one of the largest refugee-hosting nations in the world, sentiments toward Afghans appeared to be shifting. Like other Afghans, Bibi recalled “daily discrimination and humiliation.”  Amid heightened tensions, the Islamic Republic issued a deadline for undocumented Afghans to leave the country by July 6.

According to UNHCR figures as of August 6, a total of 1.8 million Afghan nationals have returned from Iran this year, among whom more than 1 million were deported. A further 314,500 Afghans returned from Pakistan between April and August of 2025, where undocumented Afghans have also recently faced increasing expulsions. The latest peak of returnees came just after the summer deadline, but organizations operating on the border say thousands continue to flood back every day in what is becoming a full-scale humanitarian crisis. Many are returning to a country they fled in fear, with no homes, no incomes, and humanitarian support stretched thin. In this desperate situation, returning Afghan women and girls face even more uncertainty about entering a country under Taliban leadership.

Today marks four years since Afghanistan’s capital fell during the Taliban’s offensive, cementing the group’s return to power in 2021. Since then, Afghan women and girls have been largely silenced across the country, systematically stripped of their freedoms and banned from most jobs. Restrictions have been enacted throughout the following years: in 2024, the Taliban’s ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” issued a ban on hearing women’s voices in public. Experts have warned that the country faces a “gender apartheid.”

Four years on, some returning women and girls are confronted with a country they no longer recognize and where freedoms are severely limited. The Taliban’s assault on education is one such point of concern for returnees. In Afghanistan, girls above sixth grade are prohibited from attending school, meaning returning teenage girls will now be forced to end their education. 

“One child is returning or being forced to return to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan every 30 seconds; that is the equivalent of a classroom full of children every 15 minutes,” said Samira Sayed Rahman, Advocacy Director at Save the Children Afghanistan. As a mother to three girls, Bibi Gol reiterated a concern many returning parents feel. “We are deeply worried about our future,” she said. “We do not know what tomorrow will bring. In Afghanistan, there are no job opportunities, and we feel completely hopeless.” 

Despite receiving support as they enter Afghanistan, a lot of returnees face uncertainty about what comes next.  “Reintegration, or integration for those entering for the first time, is going to be a challenge,” said Kiana Alavi, advocacy manager at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). “They don’t know where to go or what support is going to be provided.” For many, a critical first step is obtaining Afghan documentation, known as a Tazkira, without which returnees can’t access essential services in the country, including healthcare. Local authorities have also offered bus transport to Kabul and Herat City, but then they’re effectively on their own.

Unaccompanied minors who make the arduous journey are also at increased risk, NGOs warn. Rahman added: “Thousands of children are arriving alone, without their families, which heightens their risk to exploitation and physical and sexual abuse, especially among girls.” 

Humanitarian teams are doing what they can to assist returnees, including vulnerable women and girls along the border, but they are also grappling with funding shortfalls that have made their work more difficult. Approximately 23 million people in Afghanistan depend on international aid, but cuts to U.S. funding as well as reductions from other countries have devastated local communities already struggling with the country's economic collapse. Several leading organizations have been forced to halt essential programs, including education and healthcare support. 

“The humanitarian organizations have less capacity to appropriately respond to an increase in need,” said Alavi. “The needs continue to rise, but our ability to respond to the needs adequately continues to shrink.” Demand may also soon outweigh support at the border with another potential influx of returnees on the horizon. “Despite the high number of returns we’ve witnessed so far, I fear that this might be the calm before the storm when we see another influx of Afghan returnees enter the country in September,” Alavi added.  “Considering that a lot of the returnees are families, including women, and female-headed households, the needs are likely to increase even further.” 

“Given the increase in the number of returnees from neighboring host countries, it is vital for the international community to not turn their back to Afghanistan,” Alavi urged. Like many other returning families, Bibi Gol is trying to look forward with hope but knows she can’t do it alone. “We are in urgent need of support,” she added, “both for our basic survival and for rebuilding our lives.” 

*Name has been changed to protect her identity.