Tuesday marks the two-year anniversary of Kabul falling to the Taliban, which seized control of Afghanistan amid the United States’ chaotic, controversial withdrawal from the country after nearly 20 years of fighting…. But celebrating is the last thing many Afghan women want to do… as life under Taliban rule becomes increasingly repressive and brutal.
When Zahra thinks back to her life before the summer of 2021, it seems like another reality. As a student in Afghanistan, she had “lots of friends.” “We were happy together,” she recalled. “We were studying, sometimes we were gathering together … we were riding bikes.”
Zahra, 20, doesn’t ride bikes anymore. Or go to school, or walk outside without covering her face, or see friends who have fled the country. All she can do, she says, is sit at home and worry about a future that has unraveled before her eyes. “When I stand in front of the mirror, when I look at myself, I just see a different Zahra from two years ago,” she said. “I feel sad for my past.”…
After the truth-shower 