Fear, anxiety grips Afghan women as Taliban takes Kabul

Kabul, Aug 15: Fear, anxiety gripped Afghan women after the Taliban entered Afghanistan's capital Kabul, capping the terrorists' lightning push for power.

"I can't believe the world abandoned #Afghanistan. Our friends are going to get killed. They (Taliban) are going to kill us. Our women are not going to have any more rights," said a woman who arrived in Delhi from Kabul.

"The situation is really dangerous there. We don't want to wear Chadaree. I want freedom. I am not able to sleep & eat in peace, Arifa, an Afghan national told ANI.

Hunkering indoors and watching her country fall to the Taliban, one young woman in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul described on Sunday the anxiety, fears and dashed hopes her generation feels as embassies evacuate staff and the government all but crumbles.

Khurram, 22, said female students who'd made it to Kabul University early Sunday were told good-bye by their professors, who said they were unsure if the girls would be allowed to return and unsure whether if classes resumed that boys and girls would be allowed to study together.

"The future is at stake. Our lives are at stake," she said, speaking from her home in Kabul. Electricity in her neighbourhood had been out all day as she spoke to The Associated Press over her mobile phone.

She'd hoped to serve her country after graduation, having spent the past several years studying international relations, working as a human rights defender, volunteering and even speaking at the United Nations.

Life in the capital of 6 million people rapidly deteriorated Sunday, just as it had across much of the country over the past several weeks amid a Taliban blitz that saw the group capture one provincial capital after another.