Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, Afghan women and girls have been systematically eliminated from public life; they have been banned from secondary and higher education, including online learning platforms in some provinces, and limitations have been imposed on them in most formal employment. They are also restricted from visiting beauty salons, shrines, graveyards, public parks, gyms, sports facilities, and recreational areas. Yet, on the international stage, the Taliban act differently toward women.
In this piece, we argue that these gestures are carefully controlled, selective, highly symbolic, and strategic. They are designed to impress foreign audiences and portray the image of a regime that respects human/women’s rights and dignity. In post-structuralist and authoritarianism scholarship, this behavior is called normative performativity, referring to the way autocrats use and manipulate words, symbols, gestures, rhetoric to mimic international norms and shape political reality. Taliban perform international norms to appear cooperative and inclusive, without internalizing them. Their adherence is symbolic, a way to gain legitimacy, avoid sanctions, or maintain a moderate image.
Furthermore, the Taliban engage in what scholars call authoritarian bargaining with norms. Simply put, they carefully balance domestic control with international legitimacy. Domestically, the Taliban promotes extreme nationalist, traditionalist, or religious ideologies, which they reinforce through media control and propaganda. Internationally, they project a more moderate and pragmatic image.
Taliban also enforces harsh rules at home while selectively adopting international norms abroad. As Bruce Bueno de Mesquita’s Selectorate Theory suggest another framework to understand how the Taliban balances domestic control with international legitimacy. They reward loyal domestic elites while punishing others.
Take a few examples:
Media Representation
Inside Afghanistan, women journalists are entirely absent from public offices and media, and when they appear, they must cover their faces on air. However, we have repeatedly observed—since the Doha peace agreement—that the Taliban consistently engage and interact with foreign women journalists.
Recently, during a press conference with the Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi, Indian women were forced into participation, highlighting the performative nature of Taliban gender compliance and the tension between Taliban’s internal policies and their need to manage their image abroad. It also shows that Taliban’s inclusivity is directed outward, toward international audiences.
Public Appearances
The Taliban systematically excludes Afghan women from public spaces, reinforcing their domestic ideological control. Yet at international gatherings including meeting with UN officials, they allow female advisors, staff, or journalists to participate. These gestures are strategic, designed to avoid sanctions or diplomatic isolation rather than internal compliance with international norms.
Symbolic International Engagement
Since 2022, girls above grade six have largely been barred from formal schooling. Yet the Taliban occasionally permits limited pilot programs or private schooling in certain provinces, framing them as concessions for international donors. While these programs remain tightly controlled and do not challenge the regime’s fundamental restrictions, they are symbolic ways to justify their behavior and are framed as concessions to international donors.
The pattern is clear: the Taliban’s public gestures abroad or when interacting with foreign women are not signs of progress; they are strategic tools of authoritarian bargaining with norms. They enforce harsh gender restrictions at home while selectively performing gender inclusivity abroad. Afghan women continue to pay the price of this double game. The international community, while observing these performances, must recognize the reality behind the optics. Taliban must understand that symbolic compliance cannot substitute for real rights, and the world cannot be fooled by appearances while Afghan girls and women remain silenced at home.
Reference List
BBC News. (2025, August 5). Afghanistan’s Taliban ban all education for girls. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64318669
Committee to Protect Journalists. (2025, August). How the Taliban’s propaganda empire consumed Afghan media. https://cpj.org/2025/08/how-the-talibans-propaganda-empire-consumed-afghan-media/
Human Rights Watch. (2025, September 17). Taliban deny Afghan girls their education and future. https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/09/17/taliban-deny-afghan-girls-their-education-and-future
The Guardian. (2025, September 22). “Send your daughters or you get no aid”: The Taliban are making religious schools girls’ only option. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/sep/22/taliban-afghanistan-women-girls-madrasa-religious-schools-only-option-education
UN Women. (2025, August 7). FAQs: What it’s like to be a woman in Afghanistan in 2025. https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/faqs/faqs-afghanistan
UNESCO. (2025, August 13). Afghanistan: Four years on, 2.2 million girls still banned from school. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/afghanistan-four-years-22-million-girls-still-banned-school
Hasina Jalal
Hasina JALAL is a PhD candidate in Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, with a research focus on comparative politics and security studies. Her career spans both government and civil society, where she championed women’s empowerment and promoted principles of good governance. Her academic and advocacy work explores democratic resilience, security sector reform, gender equity, and sustainable peacebuilding in post-conflict environments.
Paulo Casaca
Paulo Casaca is the Founder and Executive Director of the ‘South Asia Democratic Forum’; founder of the international co-operation association registered in Brussels ARCHumankind, ‘Alliance to Renew Co-operation among Humankind’. Founder and senior partner of the consultancy company on sustainable development registered in Brussels, Lessmeansmore, Land and Energy Sustainable Systems (2010-2020).