Afghanistan Policy Lab Project Shows How Afghan Women Endure Under Taliban Rule

In February 2020, Noorin was  a second-year computer science student at Kabul University. At the top of her class, she aspired to run Afghanistan’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

But in the four years since the Taliban returned to power, her parents, who diligently saw the education of all six of their daughters, were unable to overcome the pressure to marry her off.

“Now she is the wife of someone in a very traditional Afghan family,” said Lutf Ali Sultani, a resident fellow at the Afghanistan Policy Lab (APL)who interviewed Noorin. Afghan women are expected to give birth within a year of marriage, he said, “and after that, she will be busy raising her kids and serving her husband.” The lab, supported by the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, aims to help build an inclusive, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan, equally representing all citizens.

From 2017-2021, Sultani worked as a journalist at a newspaper in Kabul known for its investigative reporting, especially on corruption. At the APL in Princeton, where he landed soon after his arrival in the United States, he has continued his reporting, written policy papers and produced a newsletter.

“The girls who are stuck back in Afghanistan are in a desperate situation.” — Lutf Ali Sultani

For International Women’s Day in March, Sultani and Afghan journalist Anisa Shaheed, another APL fellow, connected with women in their native country who have been forced to reckon with the Taliban’s regressive gender apartheid. Over the course of a three-part reporting series, Sultani and Shaheed gave voice to eight women and girls - each identified by a pseudonym for their left Afghanistan in 2020 and the Taliban took power, virtually every woman they spoke to reported depression, punctuated by fear and isolation. One likened it to “falling into a dark hole.”

“The girls who are stuck back in Afghanistan are in a desperate situation,” said Sultani in an interview.  “But there is an opportunity to learn through the internet, and that’s important,” he said, adding that the web is only available to those with means.

“Even if women cannot go to university physically, they can access the internet” he said, before adding that as the Taliban become more technically savvy, he fears a forthcoming crackdown on internet freedom. The stories demonstrate resilience, courage and adaption. A pair of teenage sisters wore their brother’s clothing and surgical facemasks to continue joining school. One day, a school administration discovered them.

“Seeing us dressed as boys, his voice trembled, and he started crying. We cried too,” one of them said. The administrator “told us to ensure no one learns about this, so we can continue our studies.” An 18-year-old medical students discussed practicing midwifery, one of the few female professions allowed by the regime. “Taliban are afraid of educated women because they know that an educated woman will not raise Taliban,” she said. “They know than an educated woman will raised educated children, not those who believe in the language of guns.”

Sultani was able to flee the country with the help of the National Endowment for Democracy, through his employment at the newspaper. “We had freedom of speech, freedom of movement. We had demonstrations, protests and overall, we had a democratic system,” he said of the 20 years before U.S> troops withdrew. The repressive Taliban regime created a kind of emotional whiplash for him - he watched, stunned, as the country he grew up in fell apart.

As the Taliban rule enters its fifth year, Sultani estimates that thousands of Afghan women have fled the country for Pakistan, the U.S., Australia and Europe - wherever they cant find refuge, assuming they can find a male guardian to escort them abroad, per Taliban rules.

But for now, one takeaway from his project has been the catharsis he was able to provide the women by telling their stories. “For them, an email or a text makes them hopeful - gives them energy and helps them not to fall down into those deep holes,” he said.