Afghan women are erased from public life

Five years into Taliban rule in Afghanistan, women have been particularly affected by the government’s restrictions. They are banned from public places including parks and excluded from most jobs, while girls are barred from education beyond the age of 12. FRANCE 24’s Peter O’Brien spoke to independent researcher Melis

Decrees restricting the rights of women and girls to study, work, travel and act independently now threaten to damage Afghanistan permanently, experts say.

The United Nations agency for women’s rights observed the fifth anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan by noting that women have been “systematically stripped of their rights” and effectively “erased from public life” by the Islamist regime.