Among Afghans, there is a saying: “A woman can only be defeated by a woman.” In today’s Afghanistan, this expression takes on a painfully literal meaning. With women and girls barred from schools, workplaces, and public spaces, the enforcement of these restrictions extends beyond Taliban men. Women aligned with the Taliban – as wives, daughters, and inner circle members – have become active participants in silencing their own gender.
The emergence of Taliban women as agents of the regime’s brutal ideology is stark and deliberate. They are not passive followers; they actively collaborate – reporting, policing, and suppressing Afghan women who dare to dream of freedom. At a time when millions of Afghan girls are denied education and women are erased from public life, the female face of oppression presents a cruel paradox: wom
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