Women’s lives in Afghanistan have changed 360 degrees in just two decades. Before the war and the Taliban, they participated in public life, were educated and dressed as they wished.
With the arrival of the Taliban, a fragile section of Afghan society began to live in hell. They were raped, beaten, and imposed extreme rules – the obligatory wearing of a burqa, a date only with a man from the family, a ban on education and much more.
See them in the gallery, the contrast between the photos says a lot.
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- 7th June 1978: Women in short skirts and high heels walking freely down a street in Kabul. (Photo by V. Seykov/Keystone/Getty Images)
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- 396006 11: A woman carrying a child passes a Northern Alliance soldier in the village of Kapissa, October 17, 2001 in Northern Afghanistan. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)
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- 397350 03: Women in the traditional Afghan burkha beg for alms as worshippers walk by November 16, 2001 on the first Friday prayers of Ramadan near the Talaquan Mosque (the Northern Alliance capitol) in Afghanistan. The town of Talaquan has been liberated from the Taliban by the Northern Alliance. (Photo by Sion Touhig/Getty Images)
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- 397606 03: Shekiba, a 20 year-old widow, sells her personal items on a street corner November 21, 2001 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Women were forbidden to go to school, walk outside unveiled or hold jobs under the Taliban rule of Sharia, or Islamic, law. There has been little increase in women’s rights since the Taliban fled the Afghan capital November 13. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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- KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – SEPTEMBER 23: Afghan female officers attend their graduation ceremony for the first class of 29 women September 23, 2010 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Over the last 20 weeks, eight U.S Army women mentors worked along side the 29 candidates who are some of the first to serve in a position of authority as officers in the Afghan National Army (ANA). Their ages range from 18-35, many are housewives. (Photo by Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
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- 403870 01: A group of women clad in burqas ride in a horse drawn cart April 13, 2002 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Horses and donkeys are popular modes of transport in Afghanistan. (Photo by Natalie Behring-Chisholm/Getty Images)
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- Stewardesses from Afghanistan before the war
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- July 1979: Female workers join the men on a march in Kabul. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
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- KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – JULY 4: Afghan women demonstrators gather at a junction close to a United Nations office in Kabul July 4, 2002. The demonstration aimed to denounce the attack of civilians that occurred in Urzgan province by US forces earlier in the week, which allegedly left 30 civilians dead. (Photo by Natalie Behring-Chisholm/Getty Images
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- Women in Afghanistan before the war – dressed as they wanted and walked freely
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- Women in Afghanistan in the 1970s
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- Kabul, Afghanistan-March 8.2005: A woman begs for alms in a street in Kabul. As many as 86 percent of women are illiterate in Afghanistan and most of them are jobless
