It’s August 2021. After twenty years of war, the United States had barely pulled out of Afghanistan before the Taliban once again seized power. I think you can safely say that the fall of Kabul and the takeover of power by the Taliban The biggest disaster for women’s rights in the last yearIn a new episode of she saysAudio recording.

Despite the Taliban’s promise that things are going differently now, nothing is pointing in that direction. Less than a day after the fall of Kabul, all pictures of women were removed from the streets and women were forced to wear the veil. Thousands of Afghan girls and women have now been banned from attending secondary schools and universities, and sports have been banned because they are “unsuitable and unnecessary”. Jobs also cease to exist because women have to stay at home “for their own safety” and women are no longer allowed to travel alone.

Slowly but surely, Afghan girls and women are being pushed back behind the front door, hidden behind a veil and wiped off the streets. If the Taliban continues to enforce the rules at this rate, it won’t be long before women disappear from the public radar. But what will happen to these girls and women when the world no longer sees them? When the protests subside and another hot topic What is all we care about?

Unlike what happened twenty years ago, a new generation of Afghan women is now more educated. ‘They are more assertive and combative,’ says Marej Cornelissen. “These women are currently on the front lines of the protests. As an international community, we must ensure that these women receive support.” And this is much needed, because after more than four months of Taliban rule, the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated significantly. Not only because of the increasingly strict rules, but there is now famine as well. There is an urgent need for humanitarian aid. “