The Next Century foundation urges the UN and its member states to immediately take action to improve food security in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Without this, women’s rights cannot improve. Since the current government of Afghanistan took office, most aid has been ceased, assets frozen, and heavy sanctions implemented. This has sent Afghanistan into an economic crisis, and has severely worsened food security. Food prices have rocketed, and UN reports indicate that almost 20 million people are going hungry. This has deeply gendered consequences. Women give up food disproportionately to feed their children, and young girls are most often the victims where families find themselves having to force a child into underage marriage in order to use the dowry to pay for food. Even should secondary education be reinstated across Afghanistan, many girls will be prevented from attending if they must earn income to buy food. Given women’s limited employment rights, they will be forced into unsafe, informal jobs to do so. Improving women’s rights such as access to education, even indirectly through improving food security, avoids negative consequences of focusing only on women’s rights in Afghanistan; as food security is improved, so are living standards across the population. We call on the UN and the international community to subsidise food in Afghanistan, deliver agricultural aid, and resume trade with Afghanistan to improve food insecurity if women’s rights are to be sustainably and fully restored. To do so, engagement and cooperation between the UN, member states, and Afghanistan is vital.