Afghan women like me can't work, go to the shops without a male chaperone or even speak in public - and it's because the West abandoned us to the Taliban

Afghan women like me can't work, go to the shops without a male chaperone or even speak in public - and it's because the West abandoned us to the Taliban By Anonymous For The Daily Mail Published: 01:49 BST, 17 September 2024 | Updated: 01:56 BST, 17 September 2024 e-mail View comments Even from many metres away in the crowded passageway of my local bazaar I could hear the voices of the Taliban . Clad in their traditional robes and wielding automatic weapons, they were pulling people aside and questioning their business there, one of the arbitrary spot checks aimed at rooting out those who dare to break their oppressive rules. I was accompanied by my brother – my ‘mahram’, or guardian – for single women like me are unable even to shop for groceries without a male chaperone.

As Taliban rules also demand, I was covered from head to toe in my burka despite the stifling 30c heat. Nonetheless, I still nudged my brother and gestured with a nod to him that we should quickly return home – the only way I could communicate with him as a new law introduced last month has banned women from speaking in public. When we dare to step outside the confines of our homes, there must not be a single bit of our body or face visible apart from our eyes For encountering the Taliban is not worth the risk: however much you think you have complied with their evermore stifling demands, they find ways to brutalise you.

We know of a woman who was sent to prison, and her husband tortured, because.