One in six Afghans lives with a disability. Under Taliban rule, they are among the most systematically excluded communities in the country, and among the least heard in international policy discussions on Afghanistan.
On 24 June 2026, HAMRAH Network member the Rahyab Initiative screened its documentary, The Suspended Dreams: Stories of Resilience, Dignity, and Hope of Persons with Disabilities in Afghanistan, in a Committee Room at Westminster, before an audience of Members of Parliament, UN representatives, researchers, and disability advocates.
Welcoming remarks were delivered by UK MP Gareth Thomas and Councilor Peymana Assad, both calling for sustained international attention to the human rights situation in Afghanistan.
The event was opened by Dr Benafsha Yaqoobi, Director of the Rahyab Initiative, who set the terms of the discussion clearly: the voices of persons with disabilities must be at the center of international policy on Afghanistan, not treated as a footnote to a wider crisis, and not an afterthought in humanitarian planning.
Mehdi Salami, Deputy Director, presented Rahyab’s field-based research documenting the systematic exclusion of persons with disabilities from education, healthcare, employment, and social protection in Afghanistan. The scale of need is significant: an estimated 80 per cent of Afghan adults live with at least one disability, a figure shaped by more than four decades of conflict, landmine contamination, and the collapse of public services. Yet persons with disabilities account for nearly 10 per cent of those requiring humanitarian assistance and remain among the least prioritised in the international response.
Under Taliban rule, that exclusion has deepened. International organisations have withdrawn, aid funding for disability-focused work has diminished, and the structural barriers that existed before 2021 have grown more severe. Women and girls with disabilities face a compounded set of restrictions — gender persecution layered on top of disability exclusion — that renders them nearly invisible to both Taliban policy and international attention.
Three Priorities
Three clear priorities emerged from the discussion: strengthening evidence-based disability research that captures the lived realities of persons with disabilities in Afghanistan; investing in locally led, context-sensitive inclusion initiatives rather than generic humanitarian frameworks; and ensuring the meaningful participation of persons with disabilities at every stage of decision-making — grounded in the principle of Nothing About Us, Without Us.
Other panellists included Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, and Heba Hagrass, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Their presence at a civil society-convened event at Westminster reflects both the important work Rahyab Initiative is doing and the growing international standing of Afghan civil society in exile.
HAMRAH Network is proud to support the Rahyab Initiative and to centre persons with disabilities in our work on Afghan civil society.
