In Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan, One Woman Refuses a Life of Dependence

“They say driving is only for men. But women have proved that they, too, can drive.” Credit: Learning Together.by External Source (kabul)Friday, August 07, 2026Inter Press Service KABUL, August 7 (IPS) - The Taliban’s rise to power robbed Mehrmaa of her husband, her job and her chance to live freely. It was a cold, snowy night in March 2022 when Mehrmaa’s neighbors brought her husband’s lifeless body home. He had disappeared more than seven months earlier. Mehrmaa had barely managed to cope with the new restrictions imposed on women by the Taliban, and now she felt as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders.“At the end of our road home, there were seven coffins containing bodies that had been delivered to their families. Seven months ago they had been taken alive and now they have been returned dead,” Mehrmaa says.Mehrmaa describes how, in July 2021, the Taliban took over the provinces and its forces entered her hometown on motorbikes. The Taliban raised their flag in the centre of the city as a sign of victory. Government helicopters bombed the city, leaving many people homeless and without shelter. Mehrmaa’s province was the first to fall under Taliban oppression. Many fl...