What's at stake for Afghan women?

As many fear the Taliban could undo a generation of gains, Rashmee Roshan Lall recalls the experiences of the women she met while working in Afghanistan

Afghan women walk along a street on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani/ Alamy Stock Photo

Now that Afghanistan is back in Taliban hands and the US is being berated for abandoning the country’s women and girls, two questions arise. Will the incredible gains made by Afghan women in the past 20 years be reversed? And if they are, were those advances in women’s education, reproductive health and employment prospects no more than cosmetic change?

The world is fearful that the Taliban will reimpose the brutal system that all but eliminated women’s rights during their five-year rule between 1996–2001. Girls and women were barred from attending school, from working, from leaving the house without a male chaperone and from accessing healthcare delivered by men. Along with the mandatory all-enveloping burqa, a ban on f…