TUESDAY March 7, 2023: 'Taliban's War On Women' by award winning DPA photographer Oliver Weiken: The Taliban banned women from attending university last December, nine months after the Islamist group barred girls from returning to secondary schools amid a brutal crackdown on women's rights since it seized power in 2021. Afghanistan is currently one of the most difficult countries in the world in which to identify as a woman. Political and economic insecurity, educational inequality, sexual violence, and poor health are pervasive. One year after the fall of Kabul, women in Afghanistan are starving and have lost access to their hard-earned rights, education, and jobs. Welcome to: 'Taliban's War On Women'
© zReportage.com Story of the Week #879: TUESDAY March 7, 2023: 'Taliban's War On Women' by award winning DPA photographer Oliver Weiken: The Taliban banned women from attending university last December, nine months after the Islamist group barred girls from returning to secondary schools amid a brutal crackdown on women's rights since it seized power in 2021. Afghanistan is currently one of the most difficult countries in the world in which to identify as a woman. Political and economic insecurity, educational inequality, sexual violence, and poor health are pervasive. One year after the fall of Kabul, women in Afghanistan are starving and have lost access to their hard-earned rights, education, and jobs. Welcome to: 'Taliban's War On Women'

20-year old Afghani radio journalist NADIA SAFI poses for a photograph in the studio of Radio Zohra (English: Venus), a female radio station in northern Afghanistan. The radio host was last on air August, 7, 2022 a day before the Taliban took over and banned almost all women from work.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

A young Taliban fighter aims his rifle in the direction of a photographer for fun as he stands guard outside a police station in Kabul. Some five weeks after taking power in Afghanistan, the militant Islamist Taliban have unveiled new members of their interim government, but women are still not among them.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

SARA SEERAT, 27, was a former leading advisor in the Afghan Ministry of Women Affairs. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan not only the ministry was abolished also most women were banned from work.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

An Afghani woman wearing a burka begging for money is surrounded by men and boys in a market in northern Afghanistan. One year after the fall of Kabul, women in Afghanistan are starving and have lost access to their hard-earned rights, education, and jobs.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

Women are trained to use AK-47 machine guns as part of their training as police officers. On September 25, 2022 over 100 women police officers were rehired in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province, as a ray of hope for women amid the grave challenges of human rights violation in the country.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

GUHLAM REZA OMED, principal of Kaaj Private School, stands at the site where a suicide bombing in September 2022 claimed more than 50 lives, many of them young women. When they took power in August 2021, the Taliban massively restricted women's rights.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

A young Afghan boy, living below the poverty line, fishes a plastic bottle out of the heavily polluted and littered Kabul River to sell on as recycling for small amounts of money in Kabul.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

Afghani boys sit next to their teacher as they learn to recite the Quran in its entirety, a prerequisite to further attend their 'Madrasa', a religious school for the study of the Islam, in northern Afghanistan.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

Young Afghan girls attend class in a primary school in Kabul. The new Taliban government has banned girls from secondary school education in Afghanistan, by ordering high schools to re-open for boys only.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

Young Afghan girls arrive to a primary school in Kabul. The new Taliban government has banned girls from secondary school education in Afghanistan, by ordering high schools to re-open for boys only.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

FATIMA AMIRI looks out from her parents' living room. The 17-year-old Afghan student lost her left eye in a suicide bombing at Kaaj Private School in September 2022 that claimed more than 50 lives. She took the subsequent university entrance exam anyway and passed with top marks. Girls' schools from the seventh grade onward have been closed in large parts of the country, and women have largely been pushed out of the workforce.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

Afghan men sell Taliban flags backdropped by the Muslim creed written on a wall of the former United States Embassy in Kabul.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

A member of the Taliban with an M-16 assault rifle sits among alll male spectators watching a game of buzkashi. Buyzkashi is a traditional Central Asian sport in which horse-mounted players attempt to place a bag resembling a goat carcass in a goal.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

Afghan men watch a traditional wrestling match at the Chaman-e-Hozori Park in Kabul.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

Afghan jockeys compete in a game of buzkashi, a traditional Central Asian sport in which horse-mounted players attempt to place a bag resembling a goat carcass in a goal.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

LAILA HAIDARI stands in her 'atelier' or dress workshop in Kabul. Haidari has founded an institute where women learn to make clothing and jewelry in order to earn an income. There, Haidari also offered courses in subjects such as English, mathematics and programming. When they took power in August 2021, the Taliban massively restricted women's rights. Girls' schools starting in seventh grade have been closed in large parts of the country, and women have largely been pushed out of the workforce.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

Afghan mothers tend to their infants in a ward for severe malnutrition in a hospital in Kabul. According to ''Save the Children,'' the number of dangerously malnourished children in Afghanistan has increased by 47 percent in 2022, with some babies dying before managing to receive any treatment. The country has one of the highest child malnutrition rates in the world.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

JULIA PARSI (L) sits with other founders of the ''San Library,'' or ''women's library'' in the Afghan capital Kabul. In December, the Taliban also announced it would ban women from entering universities.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

JULIA PARSI sits in the ''San Library,'' or ''women's library'' in the Afghan capital Kabul, which she founded together with other women. When they took power in August 2021, the Taliban massively restricted women's rights. Girls' schools starting in seventh grade have been closed in much of the country, and women have largely been pushed out of the workforce. In December, the Taliban also announced it would ban women from entering universities.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

A young girl peeks into the classroom where 8-year-old MORTAZA attends a lesson with other boys who split their time between school and street labour. Like Mortaza, who cleans shoes on the streets in Kabul, many children in Afghanistan have to work to contribute to the family income.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press

Afghan men consume drugs on a street in Kabul. Drug addiction has been a long standing problem in Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer of opium and heroin and now a major source of meth. Despite the Taliban's hard stance on illegal substances, the Ministry of Health suggests, that the number of addicts is increasing, a situation that most likely fueled by the country's economic collapse.
© Oliver Weiken/dpa via ZUMA Press