Afghanistan, Gender, Global development, Iran, Middle East and North Africa, Migration and development, Refugees, Society, South and Central Asia, Taliban, Women, Women under the Taliban, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
Jobless, homeless and helpless without a man: Afghan women expelled by Iran into hands of the Taliban
Those who fled Afghanistan fearing gender apartheid have been forced back to live in a society in which, without a male ‘guardian’, they cannot work or rent a home, leaving them in poverty and open to abuse
Safia* thought she had finally found safety for herself and her children. After years of violence and hardship at the hands of her husband, a police officer who became a Taliban commander in the western province of Herat, Safia and her two children had fled to Iran in 2018 to start a new life.
There, with the help of other refugee Afghan women, she had started a small clothing business and had built a fragile but dignified life for herself and her family.