| A Taliban fighter stands guard as women wait to receive food rations distributed by a humanitarian aid group in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 23, 2023. A U.N. report says the Taliban are restricting Afghan women's access to work, travel and health care if they are unmarried or don't have a male guardian. The Taliban have banned women from education, most jobs and public spaces like parks since seizing control of Afghanistan in 2021. AP-Yonhap |
| Burqa-clad Afghan women and child refugees deported from Pakistan are seen in a nutrition ward at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) camp on the outskirts of Kabul, Jan. 9. AFP-Yonhap |
| Players from the Kunduz and Samangan teams struggle to catch a goat carcass during a semifinal game of the Buzkashi league in Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan. 3. EPA-Yonhap |
| Players from the Kandahar team participate in a Buzkashi practice match in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 21, 2023. EPA-Yonhap |
| An injured player from the Sar-e Pol team looks on during the final game of the Buzkashi league in Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan. 5. EPA-Yonhap |
| Burqa-clad mothers wait to vaccinate their children during a door-to-door vaccination campaign in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Dec. 25, 2023. Afghanistan launched a robust polio vaccination campaign on Dec. 25, with the goal of safeguarding over 8.8 million children, as announced the day before by the health ministry. The four-day campaign will be extended to a week in 42 high-risk districts in the eastern region. In these areas, children under 10 will receive vaccinations, while elsewhere the age cap is 5. The decision stems from a concerning number of positive cases recorded this year, prompting proactive measures to combat the threat of the wild virus. EPA-Yonhap |
| An Afghan health worker administers polio vaccine drops to a child during a door-to-door vaccination campaign in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Dec. 25, 2023. EPA-Yonhap |
| Tents stand in a migrant camp at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham, Afghanistan, Nov. 17, 2023. Pakistan's decision to deport Afghans who entered illegally struck hard. Many Afghans have lived for decades in Pakistan, driven there by successive wars at home. AP-Yonhap |
| An Afghan refugee stands for a portrait in a camp near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham, Afghanistan, Nov. 4, 2023. AP-Yonhap |
| Rahmat, a 15-year-old disabled boy, is placed in the yard to get fresh air in a camp for internally displaced families on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan 23, 2023. Since the chaotic Taliban takeover of Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, an already war-devastated economy once kept alive by international donations alone is now on the verge of collapse. There isn't enough money for hospitals. The World Health Organization is warning of millions of children suffering malnutrition, and the U.N. says 97% of Afghans will soon be living below the poverty line. AP-Yonhap |
| Afghan refugees sit in a camp near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham, Afghanistan, Nov. 3, 2023. AP-Yonhap |
| Afghan refugees wait to register in a camp near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham, Afghanistan, Nov. 4, 2023. AP-Yonhap |
| An Afghan refugee rests in the desert next to a camp near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham, Afghanistan, Nov. 17, 2023. AP-Yonhap |
| A family who were forced to leave their home warms up by burning garbage in a camp on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan 22, 2023. AP-Yonhap |
| Afghan men search for victims after an earthquake in Zenda Jan district in Herat province of western Afghanistan, Oct. 8, 2023. AP-Yonhap |
| Afghan children carry donated aid to their tents, while they are scared by a fierce sandstorm, after an earthquake in Zenda Jan district in Herat province, western Afghanistan, Oct. 12, 2023. AP-Yonhap |
| Fahimeh, 14, from an internally displaced family, sits on the bed in the room where she got married, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, May 23, 2023. AP-Yonhap |
| Shamila, 15, from an internally displaced family, adjusts her wedding dress in the yard of an old mud house on her wedding day on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, May 19, 2023. “I have no choice. If I don't accept, my family will be hurt,” she says. Due to poverty and debt, her father had to marry her to a boy at a young age. Her father said, 'If I did not do this, I might have to give my daughter to someone that I owe. Now, with the money I received from the boy's family, I can pay my debt and treat my son.' AP-Yonhap |
| Young Shiite Afghan immigrants wait for midnight in ruins in the desert around the city of Zaranj, Afghanistan, near the the Iran-Afghanistan border wall, to try to cross the border wall into Iran, Dec. 25, 2023. AP-Yonhap |
| Three internally displaced children look with surprise at an apple that their mother brought home after begging, in a camp on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 2, 2023. AP-Yonhap |
| Taliban fighters patrol as Afghan refugees arrive at a camp near the Torkham Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham, Afghanistan, Nov. 17, 2023. AP-Yonhap |
| Policemen attend their graduation ceremony in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Dec. 21, 2023. Five hundred fifty policemen have successfully concluded a rigorous two-month professional training program in Kandahar, Zabul and Uruzgan. EPA-Yonhap |
| People visit a book exhibition in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Dec. 31, 2023. EPA-Yonhap |
| A Taliban security official visits a book exhibition in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Dec. 31, 2023. EPA-Yonhap |
| Taliban members attend exams to pass grade 11 and 12 in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, Dec. 31, 2023. Sheikh Abdul Jalil Shahidkhel, the head of education, announced that 2,600 Taliban members participated to pass exams for grades 11 and 12. The purpose of the exams is to stabilize the Taliban faction and pave the way for their continued education in formal educational institutions. Participants expressed their support, emphasizing their transition from fighting for the country's freedom to settling it with education. EPA-Yonhap |
| Afghan girls attend a religious school, which remained open since the last year's Taliban takeover, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 11, 2022. Afghan girls of all ages are permitted to study in religious schools, which are traditionally boys-only, a Taliban official said Dec. 21, 2023. AP-Yonhap |
| Afghan refugees pass by an outdoor girls' classroom in Torkham, Afghanistan, Nov. 18, 2023. AP-Yonhap |