Lyse Doucet reports on the Taliban's five-year crackdown on the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

The United Nations has described Afghanistan as a global outlier with no parallel in the modern world due to the Taliban’s near-total crackdown on the rights of women and girls. This assessment comes five years after the withdrawal of US troops from the Afghanistan. Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s chief international correspondent, reported on the country during a recent trip to Afghanistan. She spoke with senior Taliban ministers and women and girls who are attempting to challenge the current repression. For the past five years, millions of Afghan girls have been deprived of education and basic human rights. Many girls have been forced into marriage at a young age due to the cost of living, or have chosen the path of migration. A generation of girls who should be contributing to the women's universities, hospitals, and government institutions are currently confined to their homes. This restriction on girls' education represents a deprivation of half of the country's human potential.

Sources

• BBC
  The Global Story | Inside Afghanistan’s secret schools for girls
• dailyasianage.com
  Turkey Calls Upon Afghanistan to Simplify Restrictions on Women
• News4JAX
  2.4 million Afghan girls shut out of secondary school 5 years after Taliban takeover, UN says
• 8AM Media
  History Repeated Itself; This Time for the Girls of Afghanistan

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Paywall and unreadable sources

• Afghanistan Analysts Network
  Beyond the Ban: Older girls finding alternative forms of education