Non 2025 our country financed humanitarian interventions for 16 million euros, the Italian ambassador to Afghanistan Sabrina Ugolini tells us. And she continues to fight for girls to return to school.
Interview with the Italian ambassador to Afghanistan Sabrina Ugolini
According to the World Happiness Report 2026, Afghanistan is the unhappiest country in the world. What do you think of this data?
«An understandable result, unfortunately, if we consider that the economic and social indicators that construct these rankings – GDP per capita, life expectancy, freedom of choice – in Afghanistan suffer from the competition of conflicts, natural disasters, poverty and, since the return to power of the Taliban, heavy restrictions on human rights.
«Italy does not forget Afghanistan»
Almost 5 years after their return, over half of the population – claims theUNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) – urgently needs humanitarian aid. However, the West seems to have forgotten about Afghanistan.
«In reality, the international community has not forgotten Afghanistan. A few days ago we participated in the Conference of Donor Countries – active since 2022, under the co-presidency of the UN, EU and World Bank – where a significant fact was shared: overall, from 2021 to today, a commitment of 7 billion dollars has been allocated for the primary needs of the Afghan population, through multilateral funds, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations. An important support, in a context in which the needs are certainly growing.”
A portrait of Sabrina Ugolini, Italian ambassador to Afghanistan since October 2024.
What is Italy’s role?
«Italy does its part. In 2025, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation ensured the financing of aid and emergency initiatives for approximately 16 million euros, entrusted to United Nations projects and civil society organizations. The lines of Italian interventions are targeted – refugees, healthcare, demining, fighting drugs – and include actions in favor of women, for example in the sector of reproductive health and gender equality. Every year we also provide some scholarships, which allow Afghan girls to enroll in Italian universities.”
Are there any active humanitarian corridors and could they be strengthened?
«Sant’Egidio and other important Italian associations, by virtue of a collaboration with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the Interior, have recently reactivated the operation of the humanitarian corridors, from which 119 Afghan refugees benefited in 2025. They are very complex channels to organize, but great attention is paid.”
Emergencies for women and girls in Afghanistan
Ambassador Ugolini, what are the main emergencies for women and girls today?
«The compression of personal freedoms, the ban on education from the age of 12, the exclusion from public life and the progressive social subordination: being a woman in Afghanistan often means being accompanied by a “marham”, a male guardian».
Today, Afghan women cannot study medicine but they cannot even be examined by male doctors. Who takes care of them then?
«For now there are still women practicing the profession, since the ban on medical studies is only in force from the end of 2024. Health care is one of the primary areas of intervention of international humanitarian aid, and this topic is one of the most sensitive in interactions with the de facto Taliban government».
Since when has the Italian embassy in Afghanistan been in Doha and why?
«For political and security reasons. After the evacuation from Kabul in August 2021, many Western diplomatic offices were temporarily relocated to Doha, where the agreements for the withdrawal from Afghanistan were signed in 2020. A representation of the Taliban has been present here for years, with whom we are confronted in the “Doha Process”, a critical dialogue platform of which Italy is a part, led by the United Nations. It is not an easy path, but at the moment it is the only sustainable one, with the aim of bringing Afghanistan back to compliance with international obligations: we take every opportunity to express concern for the human rights situation and to call for girls to return to school.”