This is on point. I'm Megna Chakrabardi. When the United States withdrew from Afghanistan

a year and a half ago, there was a good deal of wishful thinking going on in Washington

that the Taliban would be more pragmatic, less extreme than their previous rule from 1996

to 2001, and that the Taliban would honor its vaguely worded commitment to protect, quote,

women's rights within Islamic law. But today in Afghanistan, women do not have the right

to work, study or prosper. In fact, the Taliban seem to find women so terrifying. Soon after

they seized power in August of 2021, they required all female mannequins removed from Kabul

shop windows, or the forms had to have their heads removed. Instead, some shopkeepers found

a way around the edict and covered the mannequin's faces with cloth, sacks, or black plastic

bags. So that's for mannequins. Today, we're going to hear from Afghan women directly about

how much their lives have changed. And we'll begin first in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul.

We'll be speaking with a young woman we're going to call MENA. We are not using her real name

to protect her from Taliban reprisal. MENA is a language teacher, and on the day of her

final university exams, the Taliban were seizing control of the country and fighters stormed

her university and ordered the women to leave or else they'd be beaten. MENA, welcome

to On Point. Hello, Miss Nagina. This is MENA, living in Afghanistan.

Thank you so much for joining us. I just want listeners to know that this is a live conversation

and we're relying on internet connectivity between our On Point studio and MENA in Kabul.

So there might be a slight delay in our conversation, but we're going to do the best we can. MENA,

how often these days are you able to go outside? Actually, we are not able. I'm talking about

myself that I'm not able to go outside because the critical situation that I have that I'm

suffering that as a teacher that I was working in a international school and now I'm hiding

...