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BY CARRIE N. BAKER and JULIET SCHULMAN-HALL | “Everybody’s really, really scared,” said Farzaneh, an Afghan woman now living in the U.S., who asked us not to use her real name out of fear for the safety of her family back home with whom she’s speaking daily.
“None of my female cousins are going outside the house because they’re terrified of the Taliban. There’s a lot of talk about the Taliban forcing women into sexual slavery. … I’m a strong woman, and I believe in women’s rights … But all it will take a Talib to silence me is one bullet. That’s it.”
When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in the 1990s, they severely restricted the rights of women and girls, banning them from education and employment, requiring them to wear burqas, and prohibiting them from leaving their homes without a male escort. When Allied forces removed the Taliban from power in 2002, education and employment opportunities for female Afghanis increased significantly. Over the last 20 years, millions of women and girls attended school and pursued a wide range of careers. Now, with the Taliban back in power, all of this progress is at risk.
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