"BEING A WOMAN HERE IS A CRIME"

Ona dangerous and shocking trip back to Afghanistan, investigative reporter Yalda Hakim discovers the terrifying realities of life as a woman under the new laliban rule, and.meets some brave schoolgirls who are fighting back

- Yalda Hakim

Since the Taliban swept to power in August 2021, I had travelled to Afghanistan several times as an international correspondent for the BBC. The shambolic nature of their takeover and the little experience the one-time insurgents had in running a country meant I was able to freely travel to places that were once deemed the most dangerous on Earth.

I was now heading back to the country, following a two-week break in Sydney to visit my parents. I was slightly nervous about making this journey. A lot had changed since my last visit in June 2022. Women had been banned from universities, from public parks, from going to gyms; they could no longer travel long distances in the country or abroad without a male chaperone. The Taliban had also issued an edict stating that, unless it was absolutely necessary, they should refrain from leaving their homes.

The flight to Kabul is always an emotional one for me. I’ve been back and forth to the Afghan capital more than 15 times over the past 15 years. Each time feels like the first time. I have a deep connection with this city. It is where I was born almost 40 years ago. It is where my parents fled from when I was just six months old, locking up their home at first light in 1984 and never looking back. They travelled over the mountains, by foot and horseback using people smugglers and local tribesmen to guide them to Pakistan. Eventually they would settle in Australia.