Free Speech, Democracy, Youth and Sports

Summary

• Free speech: about two-thirds of roughly 12,000 journalists have left the profession. Women journalists fell from 2,833 to 747. Nineteen provinces ban images of living beings.
• Democracy: the Economist index score fell from 2.85 (2020) to 0.25 (2025). There are no elections, no parliament and no legal parties. The Republic's own elections had shrunk from 8.1 million votes to 1.8 million valid votes.
• Youth: 63% of Afghans are under 25. 2.4 million girls are out of secondary school and 78% of young women are not in education, work or training.
• Sports: women's sport is banned at home. The exiled women's football team won FIFA recognition in April 2026. The men's cricket team reached a World Cup semi-final in 2024.
• What improved: far fewer journalists and voters are killed, because the insurgency that killed them now governs.

Key indicators

The 2001 column rests on general historical knowledge, not on sources opened for this report.

Timeline, 2001 to 2026

Free speech

Afghanistan fell from 122nd to 175th of 180 in the RSF press freedom index, and most journalists left the profession. The Republic built the freest media in the region, but its journalists were killed in large numbers by the Taliban and ISKP.

Media landscape before and after

RSF says remaining outlets work under heavy pressure and self-censorship. Audiences with internet access rely on exile outlets such as Amu TV, Afghanistan International, Hasht-e Subh, Rukhshana and Kabul Now. Journalists working for exile or foreign media are accused of espionage.

Violence against journalists under both systems

The Republic era was deadly for journalists. The killers were mostly insurgents, and the state rarely convicted anyone.

The pattern changed in kind. Under the Republic the main danger was assassination and bombing by insurgents. Under the Taliban the main danger is arrest, closure and censorship by the government itself. Killings of journalists have fallen because the group that carried out most of them now rules.

Timeline of Taliban restrictions on speech

Entries before 2024 without a link are widely reported events and were not re-checked for this report.

Legal framework

The 2004 Constitution protected free expression in Article 34. The Mass Media Law of 2009 barred censorship, and an access to information law followed. The Taliban first promised to respect the media law, then replaced it in practice with directives and the 2024 vice and virtue law (Kabul Now).

Democracy

Afghanistan's Economist Democracy Index score fell from 2.85 in 2020 to 0.25 in 2024 and 2025, the lowest of 167 countries (Afghanistan International). The Republic's democracy was real but weakening: valid votes fell from 8.1 million in 2004 to 1.8 million in 2019.

Elections under the Republic

Presidential figures are those used in The State of Afghanistan 2026. Parliamentary figures are approximate and were not re-checked for this report. District council elections required by the constitution were never held.

What worked and what did not

• Worked: a constitution with equal rights, a 27% women's quota in the lower house, a parliament that rejected ministers and budgets, dozens of registered parties and thousands of civil society groups.
• Did not work: every presidential election after 2004 ended in a fraud dispute. The presidency was highly centralised. Former warlords held office. The single non-transferable vote system kept parties weak. Taliban violence closed polling centres and suppressed turnout, especially for rural women.
• Public opinion: in the Asia Foundation's 2019 survey, about 65% said they were satisfied with democracy, 36% said the country was heading in the right direction and 13% expressed sympathy for the Taliban. These figures are from the published survey and were not re-checked here.

Democracy indices

Even before 2021 the Republic was rated an authoritarian regime by the EIU and "Not Free" by Freedom House. The fall was from a weak, violent electoral system to no political rights at all.

The Islamic Emirate

• Structure: Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada rules by decree from Kandahar. Freedom House says his decrees and ministers' orders have replaced legislation, and there is no constitution.
• Elections: electoral commissions were dissolved in late 2021. There is no provision for elections.
• Parties: political parties were banned in August 2023. Freedom House calls Afghanistan an effective one-party state.
• Cabinet: the caretaker cabinet named in September 2021 was all male and overwhelmingly Pashtun Taliban figures. No woman has held a senior post.
• Opposition: the National Resistance Front and Afghanistan Freedom Front carry out small attacks. Republic-era politicians operate from exile. UNAMA recorded 218 killings of former officials and soldiers between August 2021 and June 2023 despite a declared amnesty.
• Internal divisions: reporting describes tension between the Kandahar leadership and Kabul-based ministers over girls' schooling and the 2025 internet ban. These accounts rest on unnamed sources.

One continuity: the Taliban hold consultative gatherings of clerics and elders, and some local dispute resolution continues through traditional councils. None of it is elected or includes women.

Youth

Sixty-three percent of Afghans are under 25, so most of the country has no adult memory of the first Taliban regime (UNFPA via Kabul Now). The Republic gave this generation schools, universities and media but too few jobs. The Taliban era has removed the schooling for girls and added few jobs for anyone.

Before and after

The two unemployment series disagree. The ILO model shows about 17%, while other estimates put it above 30%. The model counts only people actively seeking work, so it understates joblessness where most young women are barred from working.

The Republic-era generation

• Education: enrolment grew about tenfold between 2001 and 2021, and universities expanded from a handful to more than 150 public and private institutions. The university count is approximate.
• Voice: young Afghans staffed the new TV stations, ran civil society groups and made up much of the electorate. A national youth policy was adopted in 2014.
• Problems: jobs never kept pace with graduates. Roughly 200,000 Afghans applied for asylum in Europe in 2015 alone (approximate). Armed groups and pro-government militias recruited minors. Drug use was widespread. The abuse of boys known as bacha bazi persisted, including among security forces.

Under the Taliban

• Girls and young women: barred from school after grade 6, from university, from most jobs and from parks and gyms. Rights groups report rising depression and forced and child marriage.
• Child marriage: one public hospital in northern Afghanistan recorded 42 underage births in the first five months of 2026, and families describe promising daughters in marriage to clear debts (Guardian summary).
• Young men: face rules on beards, hairstyles, clothing and music under the 2024 vice and virtue law. Many go to Iran or Pakistan for work and are then deported.
• Brain drain: about 124,000 people were airlifted out in August 2021 (approximate), many of them educated professionals. University staff, journalists and athletes followed.
• Religious schooling: the authorities have expanded madrassas and revised curricula toward religious subjects. No independent count exists.
• Returnees: more than 6 million people have returned from Iran and Pakistan since September 2023, many of them young people born abroad.
• Workarounds: girls study through online courses, radio lessons and secret classes. The 2025 internet shutdown showed how fragile these are.

What improved for youth: boys and young men in former war zones are no longer conscripted into or killed by a daily war. Conflict recruitment of minors has fallen with the fighting.

Sports

Women's sport has been banned inside Afghanistan since 2021, while the men's cricket team has had its best results ever under Taliban rule. Both facts trace back to the Republic years, when the teams and federations were built.

Before and after

Olympic participation

Athlete counts are from Olympic records and were not re-checked for this report.

Men's cricket milestones

The contradiction is plain. ICC rules expect Full Members to field a women's side. Afghanistan does not, and keeps its status. Australia and England have declined bilateral series against the men's team while still playing them at ICC events (Dawn). The men's team still plays its "home" internationals abroad, mainly in the UAE and India.

Football

• Republic era: the Afghan Premier League started in 2012 and the men won the South Asian championship in 2013.
• Abuse scandal: in 2018 players on the women's team accused federation president Keramuddin Karim of sexual abuse. FIFA banned him for life in 2019. This happened under the Republic and showed how weak athlete protection was.
• After 2021: FIFA helped evacuate more than 160 at-risk players and officials. It approved a refugee team, Afghan Women United, in May 2025. The team debuted in Morocco in October 2025 against Tunisia, Chad and Libya (FIFA).
• April 2026: the FIFA Council changed its rules so the exiled players can represent Afghanistan in official matches without approval from the Kabul federation. Support covers nearly 90 players (Reuters via NST).

What continued or improved

Men's cricket, football, futsal, taekwondo and buzkashi all continue with government backing. Stadiums are no longer bombing targets. The cost is that half the population is excluded, male athletes face dress and grooming rules, and federations lost donor funding.

Assessment by theme

Caveats

• How this was made: this report was compiled from web searches and background knowledge, not from a full multi-source research run. It is shallower than The State of Afghanistan 2026.
• Unverified figures: numbers marked approximate or "not re-checked" were not verified against a source. That covers parliamentary election totals, Freedom House totals, the Asia Foundation survey, Olympic athlete counts, the 2015 asylum figure and the 2021 airlift figure.
• Missing data: no year-by-year series was found for RSF rank before 2019, journalists killed per year, internet users, asylum applications or youth literacy by sex.
• Conflicting figures: media outlet counts differ between RSF, AFJC and IFJ. Youth unemployment ranges from about 17% (ILO model) to above 30% (other estimates). Population estimates range from 37.2 million (Taliban) to 48.6 million (UN).
• Sources: several figures reach this report through news coverage of RSF, AFJC, EIU, UNFPA and FIFA releases, not the original documents.

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Freedom & MediaDemocracy & GovernanceYouthSportsThe State of Afghanistan 2026