The knock at the door changed everything overnight for Noorjahan* and her family. For the past two years, the 26-year-old Afghan woman had lived in Iran with her husband and three young sons – now aged nine, eight and six. They had moved in search of work to rebuild their lives after a fire destroyed their home in Afghanistan. Now, the police had arrived to send them back.
“They arrested us and took us to a deportation camp,” Noorjahan recalled. After two nights in the camp and four long days of travel, the family crossed back into Afghanistan – with nothing.
“We don’t even have enough money to buy cooking gas,” she said. “It’s really difficult when you have nothing to eat and no place to live.”
She spoke from a women-only rest centre in Khadestan, near the Iranian border. Supported by UN Women and run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the centre offers a safe space and health services including a midwife and mental health and psychosocial support, for women and girls returning from Iran or displaced within Afghanistan.
“We left everything behind”
Hadia*, another Afghan woman at the centre, had also recently returned to Afghanistan after six years living in northern Iran with her husband and their four children, now aged 11, nine, eight and two. Although they had managed to save some money and pay rent in advance, mounting pressure and threats of arrest forced them to leave, and their landlord refused to return the advance rent they had paid.
“Now, we have only the clothes we’re wearing because we couldn’t afford to bring our belongings,” Hadia said.
Life back in Afghanistan, she explained, is especially harsh for women. “Men impose restrictions on us, constantly pressuring us to adhere strictly to [the dress code for women],” she said.
“What we desperately need here is food, shelter and – above all – peace of mind.”
She was also deeply worried about the future of her children, two daughters and two sons.
“I had planned to bring them here last year, but I worried about their education,” she said. “If they remain [in Afghanistan] they will likely be as illiterate as I am.”
“They deported us anyway”
On the other side of the country, near the Pakistan border, Afghan women returnees are sharing similar stories.
Bibi Hawa*, an Afghan woman who was recently diagnosed with cancer after a decade in Pakistan, was forced to leave just 20 days after surgery. For six months prior to her diagnosis, police harassment had prevented her husband from working, and they had to borrow money for her treatment.
“My doctor advised me not to travel…but the police deported us anyway,” she said.
They weren’t allowed to collect their belongings. “We only managed to bring two bags filled with medicines and my hospital records,” she added.
Now in Kandahar province with her two daughters, aged five and three, she is concerned for their future.
“I have heard there are no schools here [for them]. Without schooling, their futures will be bleak,” Bibi Hawa said.
Hundreds of thousands of women and girls returning to Afghanistan need humanitarian aid
Since September 2023, more than 2.43 million undocumented Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). More than 1.2 million have returned from Iran this year alone.
Women and girls represent just under one-third of returnees from Iran so far in 2025, and about half of all returnees from Pakistan, according to the IOM.
UN Women is working with civil society organizations, the IOM and other partners to meet the immediate and longer-term needs of women and girl returnees, including through women-friendly spaces and services such as psychosocial support, protection and livelihoods support.
UN Women is supporting women humanitarians working at the border crossings and in communities where returnees are settling, to provide culturally appropriate and tailored support for women and girls.
If women humanitarians weren’t there, many would be left out
“There are many restrictions in Afghanistan that prevent women from interacting with men,” explained Anouk Heili, a humanitarian specialist with UN Women in Afghanistan.
“If women humanitarians were not part of the response, women and girl returnees would be completely left out – they wouldn’t be able to access information or services at all.”
At Takhta Pul, a dusty plain near the Pakistan border, women humanitarians help returnees register for their national ID – which many don’t have – and access aid. Without a national ID, it can be harder to access humanitarian support, housing, school for their children and even SIM cards.
One woman working there, supported by UN Women, said:
“Women share their stories, the journeys they undertook and the hardships they endured…The majority have abandoned their homes, often leaving their children behind. As Afghan women, we can relate to their plight.”
When you’ve lost everything, connection matters
For Afghan women and girls returning to a country in crisis, the trauma runs deep. Now they face uncertainty and a daily struggle for survival. In these conditions, being heard – and helped – by other women who understand their struggles is invaluable, and essential.
Help Afghan women and girls
Afghan women and girls are facing the most severe women’s rights crisis in the world.
Four years since the Taliban takeover, waves of restrictions have stripped them of their rights and dignity, and not one has been reversed.
UN Women is on the ground supporting Afghan women to meet urgent needs and to protect their rights. But we cannot do it without you.
