The Afghan women fighting back against Taliban rule

Having been robbed of their freedom by the brutal regime, an underground resistance movement is stirring at grassroots level but these women need help, says Shabnam Nasimi

- Shabnam Nasimi

I remember a bright morning in Kabul, standing on a dusty roadside and frantically waving at a yellow Toyota Corolla taxi, hoping to negotiate a fare to the city where my office was based. The sky was that piercingly clear shade of blue that always made me feel anything was possible. Women were grabbing fresh naan on the go, balancing bags of vegetables from the market and chatting on their phones. Others rushed to work, some in government offices, some in NGOs, while university students – books tucked under their arms – piled into shared taxis, laughing with friends. No one guessed just how quickly the world around us would change. We knew tensions were high, but most of us still believed we had time.

Looking back, I’ve often thought how life can tilt in a heartbeat. When the Taliban took control again in August 2021, it was as if a trapdoor slammed shut under half the population. Overnight, Afghan women were driven out of classrooms, forced out of workplaces, and robbed of even the smallest freedoms.

My colleague Marzia* – once a fearless project manager running workshops for women’s entrepreneurship and USAID initiatives – found herself sitting at home, forced out of work, surviving in a climate of terror. She was one of the sharpest minds I’ve ever encountered, always brainstorming how to expand women-led businesses across every province, with a vision to uplift women across Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s rule has erased women from life in Afghanistan. We have seen the shocking headlines: girls banned from secondary schools, and women from universities; increases in forced marriages and female suicide rates; the near-complete dissolution of women’s healthcare; and a clampdown on women in most public spaces. In January, Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban, ordered that buildings should not have windows looking into places where a woman could be sitting or standing.