Eight women squeezed into a stuffy, windowless hotel room in Afghanistan’s southeastern borderlands, their eyes filled with both fear and determination as they detailed their escape plan.
“We just can’t get caught by the Taliban. They are preventing women from going to Pakistan,” said Farahnaz Azizi, 24, motioning for everyone to keep quiet. All eight managed to cross the border successfully in October 2021, two months after the Taliban had stormed into Kabul, once again establishing their long-feared Islamic Emirate.