https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/world/asia/afghanistan-women-refugees.html

In recent months a growing number of single women, female-headed households and unaccompanied minors have been deported or forced to return from Iran, according to half a dozen humanitarian workers, mental health counselors and migration officers in Afghanistan. They include 15-year-old girls split from their parents and deported on their own; wives traveling on their own as their husbands hide in Iran and try to keep jobs; and single mothers struggling to speak about the police beatings or sexual abuse they faced at the hands of Iranian landlords and employers.

“The needs are very high for gender-based violence and mental health, and our resources very limited,” said Sunita, who works near the border for a humanitarian agency. She asked, like most women who spoke for this article, to be identified by one name for safety reasons. Upon the women’s return to western Afghanistan, social workers have tried to prepare teenagers and women who were born in Iran or lived there for years about the restrictions they would face. Khurshid arrived in Afghanistan, at the Islam Qala border crossing, wearing torn denim overalls and trendy sneakers. She said she draws her style from an Iranian influencer and an Afghan celebrity living in Dubai whom she follows on TikTok.

When Taliban guards overseeing the relocation facility in Islam Qala commanded Khurshid to wear a hijab last week, she rejected the orders, telling them, “I like the way I am.” Marwa acknowledged that the sisters, including the eldest, Behishta, 19, would have to buy head scarves and head-to-toe outfits to cover their bodies.