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Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. I'm Hannah Buley. Today.

I wanted to be a businesswoman when I was growing up to have my own startup and specifically with that startup and business,

I wanted to help the Afghan woman.

These are the dreams of three women in Afghanistan before the Taliban took over in 2021.

I had big hopes to study, to finish my school and then go on to university, to study law.

I had big dreams of becoming a lawyer. Unfortunately,

now I am busy leaving carpets. Heavy restrictions have been placed on women's abilities to study and work,

leaving many with no opportunities and their hopes they had for the future shattered.

I had a role map like going to university for my master degree

and after I go to the parliament of Afghanistan and after I will be a minister. So what is life

like for women working in Afghanistan? That's all coming up in today's business daily.

Just a quick note before we get into today's episode.

Since recording the interviews for this program, the Taliban imposed a 48-hour nationwide internet shutdown last week.

Communication, flights and essential services were severely affected.

The network is now back on, but there were fears about women's access to online education

and work. These conversations were recorded before the shutdown, but they provide important

context to the economic and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

My colleagues said, hey, okay, the president left and the new government talked over. I was,

you're lying. He was like, no, this is the reality.

And they told that, okay, their target firstly might be women. So let's go to your houses.

I came and said that, is this the reality in my family? And they were like, yeah, that's the reality.

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