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The Unseen War

The Walrus

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January/February 2025

Afghan women against the Taliban

- SORAYA AMIRI AND SAMIA MADWAR

The Unseen War

ON DECEMBER 22, 2022, Roqia Saee joined dozens of other Afghan women at a crossroads near Kabul University to protest a Taliban decree that banned women from universities. The organizers invited journalists to cover the event, but most outlets declined to send reporters for fear of arrests by the Taliban, Afghanistan's de facto authorities. So Saee used her phone to take photos and send them to the media.

Shortly after the protest started, some Taliban members drove up, grabbed a few of the women, and pulled them into their cars. Saee had left her two young children, who were six and nine at the time, with her neighbours. She quickly got into a taxi and started heading to an area close to her home.

Soon, Saee says, another car started following the taxi, forcing the driver to stop. Taliban members stepped out to question him, and the driver insisted he was just doing his job. The officials then turned to Saee, taking her purse and demanding that she unlock her phone. When she refused, they punched her. She finally entered her passcode.

When the Taliban saw the photos she'd taken at the protest, they accused her of working for Americans and called her names like “fahisha,” or prostitute. They forced her out of the taxi and into one of their cars, pulling a black plastic bag over her head and wrapping it around her neck so tightly she yelled that she could barely breathe.

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