Afghan women share their heartbreaking stories five years after the Taliban took power, banning girls from secondary schools, jobs, and public life.
Courageous Afghan women and young girls are breaking their silence to share their daily struggles with international journalists, five full years after the Taliban swept back into power and took control of their nation. Speaking directly to senior reporters from BBC News who visited the country in August 2026, women from various provinces described how their basic human rights have been completely stripped away day by day.
Over the past five years, living under the ruling government has transformed normal life into an endless series of strict rules, leaving millions of mothers, daughters, and sisters trapped inside their own homes without the freedom to study, work, or walk freely in public spaces.
The dramatic shift began back in August 2021 when international military forces left the country, allowing Taliban authorities to take over the capital city of Kabul and set up a strict new legal system. Since taking power, the government has systematically shut down places where female citizens used to gather, work, and learn.
Today, young girls are only permitted to attend primary school until grade six, which means their formal education ends around twelve years old. Once a girl reaches her teenage years, she is banned from attending secondary high school or entering a university. Beyond education, women have been banned from working in most office jobs, running private businesses, or working for international aid groups that feed poor families.
Living conditions across towns and cities in Afghanistan have grown harder as even simple everyday activities are now illegal for female residents. Government rules forbid women from entering public parks, exercising in neighborhood gyms, or visiting beauty salons.
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In addition, women are not allowed to travel long distances on public buses or step outside their homes unless they cover their entire body and face, and are accompanied by a close male family member like a father, brother, or husband. Human rights groups and legal scholars around the globe now describe this complete separation and lockdown of female citizens as a system of gender apartheid, where half of the country’s population is cut off from society.
Despite facing severe danger and punishment for speaking out, brave women inside the country shared their pain directly with BBC international correspondent Lyse Doucet during her reporting trip. Describing the heavy emotional weight of losing her dream to become a doctor, one young student explained her daily pain, telling reporters that “we are still here, but living like this feels like we are completely erased from the world.”
Other women explained that even basic survival has become a struggle without a monthly income. Highlighting how hard it is to feed a family when female workers cannot earn money, a former female professional stated that “women are being granted their rights according to Islamic law, but in real life, mothers cannot even buy bread for their children.”
Even with no clear end in sight to these strict rules, many brave girls are fighting to keep their hope alive by learning secretly inside private homes. Underground home schools have popped up in hidden rooms across residential neighborhoods, where female teachers risk their personal safety to teach young girls math, science, and reading after dark.
World leaders and human rights defenders continue to urge international governments not to normalize relations with the Taliban until girls are allowed back into classrooms. However, for the millions of women trapped inside Afghanistan today, every passing month without change feels like another year stolen from their future.
