Five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, women and girls told the BBC that restrictions have transformed their lives, limiting education, employment, travel and personal ambitions. Their accounts illustrate how policies imposed since 2021 have left many focused on survival amid poverty and fearful of speaking openly, while the Taliban maintains that women are not wholly excluded from public life.

Afghanistan is the only country officially banning girls from secondary and higher education, with Unicef estimating that about 2.6 million girls cannot study beyond Grade 6. The UN says only 7% of Afghan women are employed, and women described losing careers and aspirations, including one former news anchor and a student who hopes to become a pilot; Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said three million girls attend schools and religious centres and claimed female entrepreneurship has increased from 30,000 to 120,000.