Aid convoy reaches Afghanistan amid deepening human rights and gender crisis

Five years after the Taliban returned to power, Afghanistan faces an escalating human rights and humanitarian crisis, with women bearing the brunt of systemic repression. Human rights monitors warn that basic freedoms have been dismantled, while legal impunity shields perpetrators of gender-based violence and femicide. Amid severe shortages affecting roughly 40% of the population, a United Nations-coordinated convoy of over 700 trucks carrying essential food and supplies arrived in the country via Pakistan, despite border closures.

Concerns over legal protections for women also persist across the region. In neighbouring Iran, rights groups continue to condemn strict judicial barriers and the execution of women who used lethal force in self-defence against domestic abuse.

Sources: Diário de Notícias (DN), Expresso, Expresso das Ilhas, Jornal Económico, RTP (Rádio e Televisão de Portugal)