UN Report: Afghanistan Excluded from Global Ranking on Women’s Political Participation

DID Press: A new United Nations Women report shows that Afghanistan has been excluded from global rankings on women’s political participation due to the absence of active political institutions and the complete removal of women from formal governance structures.

The report, titled “Women in Politics 2026,” evaluates women’s representation in political systems across 190 countries and places Afghanistan in a category of “exceptional cases or lack of available data,” alongside Myanmar and Guinea.

According to the findings, Afghanistan has no active parliament or formal decision-making bodies that include women, resulting in its exclusion from rankings on female representation in legislatures and cabinets. The report also lists Afghanistan alongside countries such as North Korea and Myanmar in categories where cabinet-level data is unavailable.

It notes that before the Taliban takeover in 2021, women held around 27% of seats in Afghanistan’s lower house of parliament. However, following the dissolution of the legislature, women were removed entirely from official political structures.

Globally, the average representation of women in parliaments has reached 27.4%, with Rwanda (63.8%), Cuba (57.2%), and Nicaragua (55%) recording the highest levels of female parliamentary participation.

Experts cited in the report warn that the complete exclusion of women from governance has placed Afghanistan among a small number of countries where women have no formal role in political decision-making, widening the gap between the country and global trends in gender representation.