Women are now permitted to work in hospitals, treating other women. In many ways, Taliban strictures have hit urban women hardest. Unlike their rural sisters, they were once accustomed to fairly widespread liberties. I wanted to be a doctor or a teacher. I miss all of that very badly.
Rural women continue to do farmwork, as they have done for centuries.
And they are used to wearing the all-encompassing burka, so Taliban edicts requiring the costume simply formalized what was already in practice. Even in Kabul most women simply long for normalcy, an elusive notion in a ravaged country. Time and again, they say their first wish is for an end to the civil war. Beyond that, they are reluctant to dream. I wish you could take one of my daughters away with you, anywhere.