VIEW FROM... AFGHANISTAN
It has been just weeks since the Taliban took Kabul. One of the city’s women speaks for many others when she tells me: “our lives [have been] turned inside out and upside down.”
When the Taliban took control in 1996, most women and girls had to stay at home. That changed in 2001, and since then Afghan women have become frontline politicians, filmmakers, artists, journalists and sports personalities. But despite the recent promise from the Taliban that women would be able to participate actively in society, many have now lost their jobs. Lots of them have left the country; many more living across Afghanistan, who have gained skills as teachers, lecturers or ordinary office workers, are waiting nervously to see what their future holds. Under an all-male cabinet, there are few women present in public institutions aside from doctors and medics.