Women’s Right to Vote in Afghanistan, Women in Blue Burqas
Women, Culture and Peace > Women’s Days for Culture of Peace > Calendar > Culture Women’s Day Afghanistan > Afghanistan

Culture Women's Day Afghanistan

Women's Right to Vote / January 26, (1964)

One of 193 national Women’s Days for Culture of Peace — a day for every UN member state. See the full calendar.

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When did women get the right to vote in Afghanistan?

Afghanistan’s third constitution, approved in 1964 under King Mohammad Zahir Shah, introduced full universal suffrage. The new law gave every citizen over 20 the right to vote, regardless of gender.

Some sources point to 1919, under King Amanullah Khan, as an earlier moment of reform. However, no functioning parliament existed at that time, so this right could not yet be exercised. The 1964 Constitution marks the first date women’s suffrage became real and practiced.

A Loya Jirga, a grand council of representatives, debated and approved the new constitution in 1964. Two women served on the 35-member commission that helped draft it. In 1965, four women won seats in parliament for the first time in Afghan history.

As with many countries, the exact date of universal suffrage is not perfectly settled. RYB presents the best-documented date available, while leaving room for the Afghan people themselves to refine this further over time.

A history of progress and reversal

Afghanistan’s path toward women’s political rights has moved forward, then sharply backward, more than once.

  • 1919-1929. King Amanullah Khan pursued early reforms, supported by Queen Soraya. Conservative backlash contributed to his overthrow.
  • 1964. The new constitution introduced universal suffrage and the right for women to stand for office.
  • 1965-1973. Women served in parliament and in government. Ruqiyyah Habib Abu Bakr, Masuma Esmati-Wardak, and Anahita Ratibzad were among the first elected.
  • 1978-1989. A communist government and Soviet occupation promoted women’s participation, mainly in cities. Many Afghans saw these changes as foreign impositions.
  • 1996-2001. The Taliban seized power. Women lost the vote entirely. Education and most employment were banned outright.
  • 2001-2021. A new constitution in 2004 restored suffrage and reserved 25% of parliamentary seats for women. Female ministers, governors, and ambassadors served for the first time.
  • 2021-present. The Taliban returned to power. Women’s political rights collapsed again, alongside education and freedom of movement.

This pattern shows a hard truth. Legal rights, once won, are not permanent. They depend on continued protection.

Key Women in Afghanistan’s Women’s Movement

Queen Soraya Tarzi (1899-1968)
An early advocate for women’s education, Soraya supported her husband King Amanullah’s reforms in the 1920s. She championed girls’ schools at a time when education for women barely existed in Afghanistan.

Anahita Ratibzad (1928-2014)
One of the first women elected to Afghanistan’s parliament in 1965, Ratibzad later became a leading political figure. She remained a prominent advocate for women’s education and rights through decades of upheaval.

Masuma Esmati-Wardak (1929-2014)
An educator and one of the first women elected to parliament in 1965, Wardak spent her career expanding girls’ education across Afghanistan. She helped shape the country’s modern approach to women’s schooling.

Sima Samar (1957- )
A physician and human rights leader, Samar founded a network of clinics and schools serving women across Afghanistan. She led the country’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs and later its Independent Human Rights Commission.

Habiba Sarabi (1956- )
Afghanistan’s first female provincial governor, Sarabi later represented her country in peace negotiations with the Taliban. Her career spans medicine, government, and diplomacy.

Fawzia Koofi (1975- )
The first woman to serve as Deputy Speaker of the Afghan Parliament, Koofi survived an assassination attempt in 2020 for her advocacy. She continues campaigning for Afghan women’s rights from exile today.

The situation today

Afghanistan is currently considered one of the most restrictive places in the world for women. Women cannot vote, since no elections currently take place under Taliban rule. Girls cannot study past sixth grade. Women face severe limits on work, movement, and public life.

Many Afghan women’s rights leaders, including former parliamentarians, now live in exile. From abroad, they continue to advocate for their country’s women, speaking at the United Nations and to governments worldwide.

This reality shapes what Culture Women’s Day Afghanistan can mean right now. Inside the country, public celebration carries real risk. Outside it, the day can still serve its purpose.

Culture Women’s Day within Women, Culture and Peace

Culture Women’s Day Afghanistan is part of a larger framework: Women, Culture and Peace (WCP). WCP builds on UNESCO’s Culture of Peace programme and the UN’s Women, Peace and Security agenda.

WCP works through culture, art, and community rather than formal institutions alone. It follows a women-centered organizing model, developed by scholars Stall and Stoecker. This model builds relationships and shared leadership, instead of competing for power.

Women’s Days for Culture of Peace is one expression of WCP. The initiative marks a day for every UN member state — 193 in total. Each day recognizes a nation’s path toward women’s political voice, and reflects on the work still ahead for gender equality and sustainable development, central to SDG 5.

Afghanistan’s day carries unusual weight within this framework. It shows what the calendar is truly for: not only celebration, but solidarity.

A day that belongs to more than one country

Women’s Days for Culture of Peace work differently than a typical national holiday. People are not limited to acting on their own country’s day.

Many people hold dual citizenship. Many feel connected to a country through family, travel, or a place they love. Culture Women’s Day Afghanistan invites exactly this kind of connection.

Women, and men, from any of the 193 countries can mark this day in solidarity with Afghan women and girls. Afghan women living abroad can lead this day for their homeland. Together, the calendar becomes a network of mutual support, not a set of 193 separate, disconnected dates.

Ideas for solidarity and reflection

Given the current situation, these ideas lean toward awareness and solidarity from outside Afghanistan, rather than public action inside the country.

  • Online. A short post or story marking the day, using #CultureWomensDay or #WCP, naming Afghan women and girls specifically.
  • In schools. A classroom discussion on what happens when hard-won rights are taken away, using Afghanistan as the case study.
  • In culture. Sharing the work of Afghan women writers, journalists, or artists, many of whom continue creating from exile.
  • In organizations. Following and supporting organizations led by Afghan women in exile, working on education, health, or advocacy.
  • At home or with friends. A quiet moment of awareness for women living under restrictions most of us will never face.
  • For Afghan women abroad. An opportunity to lead this day on your own terms, in whatever way feels right and safe.

None of this is a program to follow exactly. These are starting points for a day that, this year, asks more of the world than of Afghanistan itself.

A growing network, one country at a time

Afghanistan is one node in a global pattern of 193 national days. Most countries can mark their day with open celebration. Afghanistan, for now, asks something different: attention, and solidarity from elsewhere.

RYB does not direct this growth, and does not claim authority over any country’s history or its date. It offers the framework, the calendar, and the connection back to WCP. What happens next depends on the people who discover it, including, one day, Afghan women themselves.

Looking Forward

Culture Women’s Day Afghanistan marks 1964, when universal suffrage first became law and practice. That date anchors the day in a history of real, hard-won progress.

The years since show how fragile that progress can be. Rights granted in 1964 and restored in 2004 were stripped away twice, most recently in 2021.

This day’s future is open, as with every country in the calendar. For now, it stands mainly as an invitation to the rest of the world: notice, remember, and act in support of Afghan women and girls.

Explore the Women, Culture and Peace framework, browse the calendar of 193 national days, and consider what solidarity with Afghanistan could mean to you.

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