Going back to an Afghanistan under Taliban rule was tinged with sadness. Many of the Afghan colleagues I’ve always heavily relied on for my reporting have left. Being able to report from the country felt like a privilege, one that most Afghan journalists, and in particular, Afghan female journalists, do not have – the privilege of bearing witness to what their country is going through, and the freedom to question the Taliban running it.
In Kabul, at the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, we were met by a media-savvy spokesman, a shrewd communicator. Under the previous Taliban regime, this was the most feared ministry, doling out brutal punishment to those who disobeyed its rules. I asked the spokesman about the point they were trying to make by housing this ministry in the former women’s affairs ministry, which has been eliminated under Taliban rule. He said they had merely reorganised ministries, and this department would also work for women’s rights. I didn’t see any other women the whole time I was there.
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