Khujasta Kabiri is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Radio Azadi in Kabul.
The Taliban has imposed strict rules for women who are unmarried or do not have a male guardian, or mahram. The extremist group has severely restricted their access to work, travel, and health care. One woman who spoke to RFE/RL said single women have no "rights or opportunities" under Taliban rule.
In recent weeks, the Taliban has launched a crackdown on Afghan women and girls accused of violating the extremist group's strict dress code. Some of the women and their relatives have told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that they were humiliated and tortured in Taliban detention.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been forcibly expelled from Pakistan, including women and girls who moved to the South Asian country to continue their education. Many of them face a grim future in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has severely curtailed women's access to education and work.
The Taliban says that it has sent out feelers to professors who left Afghanistan in an attempt to lure them back. But educators who spoke to RFE/RL's Radio Azadi say there will be no going home until the Taliban opens the door to education for girls and women.
The Taliban has banned women from visiting one of Afghanistan's most popular national parks, in the latest attempt to shut out women from public life. The ban has prompted widespread anger, with one Afghan woman telling RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that it was "illogical and inhumane."
Women’s Day is intended to be a day of celebration of women around the world. In Afghanistan, it is a reminder of the violent resistance to girls and women seeking an education, and the highs and ultimate crushing low they have endured in pursuit of an inalienable right.
Afghan women and girls are turning to virtual learning amid the Taliban's ban on education. RFE/RL's Radio Azadi interviewed those behind Afghanistan Online University, which offers Afghan women free online university courses. But power and Internet outages are undercutting the university's reach.
