Chatham House has awarded its 2026 Chatham House Prize to the women of Afghanistan, citing their resistance to Taliban curbs on education, work and public life, five years after the group returned to power.
The London-based international affairs institute said the award recognizes courage and resilience in the face of what it called systematic gender persecution.
Since August 2021, Afghan women and girls have been barred from secondary schools and universities and excluded from many forms of employment. Their movement and public participation are also heavily restricted.
Women have continued to push back through street protests, advocacy campaigns and clandestine learning efforts, including secret schools, the institute said. It credited that resistance with keeping international attention on their treatment.
Bronwen Maddox, Chatham House’s director and chief executive, said Afghan women’s courage reflects a much broader movement for women’s rights and challenges the world not to look away.
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Chietigj Bajpaee, a senior research fellow for South Asia, said the prize aims to raise awareness of an issue that has “fallen off the radar” internationally. Farzana Shaikh, an associate fellow in the Asia-Pacific program, called the award richly deserved and a testament to women’s refusal to be erased from public memory.
Elaha Safdari, a goalkeeper and director of Girl Power United, accepted the honor. Khalida Popal, a former captain of the national women’s football team, said in an Instagram post that the team was honored by recognition of its years of advocacy. She said the award belongs to every woman who refused to be silenced.
Former British Prime Minister, Theresa May, president of Chatham House, presented the prize, which was followed by a panel discussion with activists Shaharzad Akbar, Zahra Joya, Orzala Nemat, Benafsha Yaqoobi and Fawzia Koofi, moderated by the BBC’s Lyse Doucet.
Established in 2005, the prize goes each year to an individual, group or organization judged to have made a significant contribution to improving international relations. Chatham House members choose the winner by vote from nominations made by the institute’s staff.
Past recipients include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Doctors Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists. Last year’s prize went to Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, a network of volunteer groups aiding civilians in the country’s civil war.
