00:03The day when the Taliban came, we came to the house and we came to the house always.
00:16Today is the 5th day when the Taliban came to Kabul.
00:47Afghans are bracing themselves for another era
00:50dominated by the Taliban,
00:52and Afghan women fear that the darkest of days
00:54will soon be upon them once again.
00:57They're burning documents and diplomas,
01:00desperate for their faces and names to remain hidden
01:03as they plead for help.
01:18In 2011 and 2018,
01:20Afghanistan ranked at the top
01:22of the world's most dangerous countries for women.
01:25But that hasn't always been the case.
01:27This is the queen consort of Afghanistan nearly a century ago.
01:31She's wearing a dress with bare arms.
01:35From 1919 to 1929,
01:38King Amanullah Khan,
01:40sometimes described as the Ataturk of Afghanistan,
01:43ruled the country and set out on a path to westernization.
01:47Women were no longer required to wear the veil.
01:50Polygamy was banned.
01:52His only wife, Queen Saraya Tazi,
01:55opened the first school for girls in Kabul
01:57and founded Afghanistan's first women's magazine.
02:01She was also the first Muslim consort
02:04who appeared in public with her husband
02:05and even took part in hunting parties and rode horses,
02:09something previously unheard of
02:12in what had been a conservative country.
02:14The rapid changes were praised abroad
02:17but weren't exactly welcome at home.
02:19Amanullah Khan eventually abdicated
02:22and his successors put the women back in veils.
02:26By the mid-20th century,
02:28the country's rulers were again moving towards modernization,
02:32removing the veil,
02:33introducing medical facilities for women,
02:36schools for girls,
02:37and the right to vote.
02:41Back then,
02:42Kabul was known as the Paris of Central Asia.
02:45But while urban women embraced the changes,
02:49poorer rural areas were lagging behind.
02:52During the Soviet presence from 1978 to 1992,
02:57women were involved in government,
02:59the police,
03:00army,
03:01business
03:01and the courts.
03:03Women made up 75% of all teachers,
03:0640% of doctors
03:08and nearly 50% of civil servants.
03:17When war broke out between Soviet forces
03:20and the Mujahideen
03:21and then the formation of the Taliban,
03:23things headed downhill drastically.
03:26When Taliban insurgents seized power in Afghanistan in 1996,
03:31women were effectively banned from public places
03:34and confined to their homes.
03:36They couldn't work,
03:37pursue an education,
03:39or be treated by a male doctor.
03:41Women were required to wear head-to-toe burkas,
03:44forbidden to reveal any bare skin,
03:47and couldn't go outside without a male chaperone.
03:50To enforce the restrictions,
03:53the Taliban set up a department for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice.
03:58Morality police drove around in pickup trucks
04:00in search of violations and meeting out punishment.
04:04In 1996, they cut off a woman's thumb
04:07because she was wearing nail polish.
04:10A mother of seven was executed with a gunshot to the head
04:13in front of 30,000 spectators.
04:16She had been found guilty of killing her husband.
04:20Women were flogged, stoned, and beaten in public,
04:24and killed for violating Taliban rules.
04:26They justified it by saying it was Islamic,
04:30also known as Sharia law.
04:32Sharia law is a legal system based on the Koran,
04:35hadiths, stories of the Prophet Muhammad's life,
04:38and other holy texts.
04:39It is not a specific set of laws,
04:43but a guide for a moral life.
04:45How to pray and how to marry your divorce.
04:48While it doesn't explicitly contain answers
04:50to every question or life situation,
04:53religious scholars interpret the texts to provide them.
04:57The thing is, though,
04:58their interpretations can vary greatly.
05:01So the Taliban's extreme conservative vision of Sharia law
05:05doesn't necessarily match that of Saudi Arabia or Iran,
05:10although both follow strict Sharia law
05:12and impose dress codes on women
05:14and gender segregation in many public places.
05:19Taliban officials are now pledging
05:21not to discriminate against women,
05:23but still do so within the bounds of Sharia law.
05:28We want to assure the international community
05:31there will be no discrimination against women,
05:33but, of course, within our religious framework.
05:36While women have been buying up burqas,
05:39Kabul's mayor remains optimistic.
05:42We cannot afford economically,
05:44nor socially, nor logically
05:46to put them aside and put them on the sidelines.
05:49Given that women make up nearly half
05:52of Afghanistan's population,
05:53it's only logical.
05:55However, there are media reports
05:57that in some areas of Afghanistan,
05:59militants are already imposing restrictions on women.
06:04Taliban field commanders
06:06have reportedly forced women to marry them.
06:09In the provincial capital of Herat,
06:11the Taliban have banned mixed gender classes.
06:16Female staff at the Afghanistan International Bank
06:19have reportedly been told to leave.
06:22A Taliban spokesman also asked women
06:24not to go to work
06:25and stay at home until security is in place.
06:30These women are afraid
06:32and trying to flee the country.
06:34But some are determined
06:36to stand up for their rights.
06:38I want to be a good person
06:40because they can be a better person,
06:43and they can be a better person,
06:45and they can be a better person,
06:47and they can be a better person,
06:48and they can be a better person.
06:51Although Afghanistan,
06:53even without the Taliban,
06:54is a conservative society,
06:56the country has made some strides
06:59in women's rights over the last 20 years.
07:03Afghan women have joined the police force,
07:06held government offices,
07:07had a ministry of women's affairs,
07:09performed on stage,
07:11taken part in the Olympics,
07:13and even won awards
07:15at an international robotics contest.
07:33As Afghan women are definitely
07:35more empowered than 20 years ago,
07:38it remains to be seen
07:39what the Taliban's current charm offensive
07:42will mean in real life.
07:44And of course,
07:47we have to find a tercer- Sinai
07:48for this kind of reality.
07:48That's what I want to experience.
07:49I want to come to see
07:49I want to see
07:50are a big deal.
07:50And the people that don't
07:51dangerous thing to come
07:51I want to be a man,
07:53And we've got a woman
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