'We are living in darkness': Afghan women describe life under Taliban

A report from ITV News with specially commissioned filming and contributions from Unicef

Afghan women have spoken to ITV News about life under Taliban rule as their rights continue to be eroded.

In August 2021 that British and American forces pulled out of Afghanistan after an almost two-decade-long campaign.

Not long after, the Taliban rose to power, overtaking the capital Kabul in days.

The Taliban reassured the international community that women and Afghan government workers would be protected, in what looked like a more liberal approach to domestic policy than the late 90s.

But those rights quickly began to be stripped away. In March last year, girls were banned from secondary school. Not long after that, they were prevented from attending university.

Lives are being ruined and so is what is left of the Afghan economy.

Fareeda, who lives in a corner of the capital, finds herself going hungry so that her children will have enough to eat.

"I may have eaten only five or six days in the last 15 days of Ramadan because we didn’t have anything - and we only brought bread and that too was hardly enough for the children," she said.

Two-thirds of the population are now reliant on UN aid. It's not just their stomachs that are going unfed.

Young minds too are being deprived by a regime determined to make the everyday sight of girls heading to school a thing of the past.

In Kabul, the capital, women are invisible and poverty is everywhere.

'It is exacerbating an already terrible humanitarian crisis'

Gula used to support her family but now has to rely on relatives abroad to get by.

"Since the Taliban took power we aren’t allowed jobs. Before the Taliban, both me and my sister were working. Right now we are both jobless," she said.

It's even harder for women like Atefa, trying to give her five daughters some kind of education while watching their dreams fade away.

"Shutting the schools to girls hurt us. Schools are closed so half of society will now stay illiterate. The situation is giving us all mental health problems. We are living in darkness," she said.

Teenage Asana can't even go to the park, talk to boys, or share a picnic.

She said: "We are being kept at home like being in prison. We are being kept at home like birds in a cage."

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