The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, prompting the U.S. embassy closure in Kabul and accelerating Special Immigrant Visa processing that reached 160,000 total issuances, more than half after 2021. Girls remain barred from education beyond age 12 under Taliban rule, which the UN ranks as the world's worst for women's rights, while most of the 2.6 million registered Afghan refugees reside in Iran and Pakistan. Several European countries, including Denmark and the Netherlands, treat Afghan women as qualifying for asylum on gender grounds alone.