August 15 also marks five years of Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan: What the country is like now

Five years after Taliban fighters walked into Kabul unopposed as the U.S. withdrew, the anniversary is marked as 'Victory Day' by the government and as a slow-motion catastrophe by nearly everyone else measuring outcomes. A UN Women report counted more than 100 decrees targeting women and girls, with 70% of women surveyed describing their mental health as bad or very bad and only 7% employed versus 84% of men.

Afghanistan remains the only country formally barring girls and women from secondary school and university, a policy UNESCO warns will eventually starve the school system of qualified female teachers. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks the country among the world's most dangerous for reporters, citing a 2024 ban on live political broadcasts and required use of an approved analyst list.

Human Rights Watch documented at least 18 cases of court-ordered corporal punishment between 2021 and 2022, including 27 people publicly whipped in a Parwan stadium in December 2022, following an order from the Taliban's supreme leader. The World Bank estimated 4.8% real GDP growth alongside 14 million people facing acute food insecurity by late 2025 and roughly 3.7 million returnees straining the economy further.

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