Editor’s note: this story was translated from the original VOA Pashto article.

The United States says that the Taliban in Afghanistan will remain designated an “Entity of Particular Concern,” citing the group’s “particularly severe violations” of religious freedom in Afghanistan.

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told VOA the U.S. does not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan and that the department has “suspended any foreign assistance” that could potentially fall into the hands of the Taliban.

“We will not allow American taxpayer dollars to fund the Taliban’s reprehensible behavior,” the spokesperson said in a written statement to VOA on September 25.

The U.S. State Department included the Taliban in its list of “entities of particular concern” in 2021 after the Taliban seized power in the country and enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law, imposing sweeping restrictions on personal freedoms and limiting Afghan women’s participation in public life.

The Taliban have not commented yet, but in the past they have repeatedly rejected criticism of their strict policies, saying that they are based on Sharia or Islamic law.

In its 2025 report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom stated that religious freedom under the Taliban remained ‘extremely’ poor and the Taliban used

“corporal punishment, surveillance, and arbitrary detention” to impose their strict interpretation of Islam.

“The Taliban continued to target religious minority communities and their houses of worship, espoused hateful rhetoric, and justified violent punishment for failing to adhere to its interpretation of Islam,” the report said.

In a virtual hearing on September 23, Asif Mahmood, chair of the independent United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, said the religious freedom situation in Afghanistan is increasingly alarming.

The Taliban continued their “repressive crackdown against those who violated or are perceived to have violated the group’s narrow interpretations of Sunni Islam,” he said.

The USCIRF chair added that critics of Taliban policies have faced arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, public floggings and, in some cases, public executions.

Mahmood noted that Afghan women and girls continue to bear the brunt of the Taliban’s religious decrees.

Since seizing power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan, including barring them from secondary and university education, long-distance travel without a male relative, and access to public spaces.

“Afghanistan is the only country in the world where such an education ban is enforced,” Mahmood said, adding that authorities continue to enforce mandatory hijab rules and they have arrested and beaten women accused of violating the edict.

Shahrazad Akbar, the executive director of exiled Afghan human rights organization Rawadari, stressed that religious freedom cannot exist without an ‘inclusive’ legal framework.

Akbar told the hearing that “a fundamental prerequisite for freedom of religion or belief is an inclusive, non-discriminatory legal framework that guarantees equality before the law for every citizen.”

“In Afghanistan, that framework no longer exists,” she added.

This story originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.