The Taliban came into power in 1996, when Aina was just three years old. During the Islamic fundamentalist group’s five-year regime, girls were banned from school or limited to a few years of education, and could not work. Even when allowed to attend school, these girls still faced dangers such as sexual harassment and acid attacks.“I don’t cry only for myself but I cry for everybody, for all Afghan women, for all girls that they won’t be allowed to go outside as they could before. For the freedom we had before.”
“It’s like a dream. I’m in denial,” she addedOn Instagram, a competitive athlete in her 20s posted photos of herself when she first started playing sports in 2013, then of herself competing abroad in 2018, before adding a sad emoji to a simple caption: “today.”“I heard a lot from my mom about the Taiban. I was shocked,” she told VICE World News. “The first thing I thought about was my university. Can I go again? Can I finish my university?”
In another post, she writes, “Goodbye my beautiful flag,” alongside a photo of her representing the country. “I can’t raise it anymore.”“I have worked hard for my future. For what I have now. I gave everything I had in the tank,” she wrote, captioning a separate photo. “But the Taliban wants to destroy it in one minute. They want to take me back to 20 years ago.”
Taha too insisted she is not ready to let the life she knows go. “I’m 22 years old. I want free speech, free education and freedom to go wherever I want.”This smidgeon of rebellion, it appears, is giving way to something powerful: hope.“I feel like I’m in a tunnel. Not really dark, but I can’t see any bright light either. I don’t know how long the tunnel is,” Taha said. “But let’s not lose hope.”Aina is as adamant. “I don’t want to change myself. I don’t want to do whatever they want me to do,” she said, adding she is still hopeful the international community will help Afghan women.“Many things have changed. We are not the women of the 90s. They did not have access to technology, to social media, the internet. But now we’ve seen all these things,” she said. “We’ve explored all these things and we won’t allow it.”Names of the women have been changed to protect their identity.With reports from Pallavi Pundir and Koh Ewe. Follow Natashya on Twitter.“If they make it compulsory, if they do, they won’t be in power anymore because women will stand against them. They cannot put us in their homes because one part of society will be paralysed if they don’t allow us to work. This community needs [us]. It’s too difficult.”