No school, no work, no freedom: What Taliban rule is doing to women and girls

Women Under the Taliban: Afghanistan’s former minister for women’s affairs Hasina Safi

Listen | 41:15
Life under the Taliban: Afghanistan women are forced to cover their faces in public; a new decree also says it is better for them to stay at home. Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty
Life under the Taliban: Afghanistan women are forced to cover their faces in public; a new decree also says it is better for them to stay at home. Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty

Following the Taliban takeover in August 2021, life for women and girls in Afghanistan has never been the same. Under their rule, access to education is limited, women are forced to cover their faces in public and there is a ban on nearly all paid employment; a new decree also says it is better for them to stay at home. In this episode of the Irish Times Women’s Podcast, Kathy Sheridan is joined by a woman who has sat opposite the Taliban in negotiations, former minister for women’s affairs Hasina Safi. She tells Kathy about her evacuation from the country last year and her experience dealing with the group.