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Agence France-Presse

Streets that were once bustling with life have fallen silent. Few women dare to leave their homes. Fighters patrol the neighbourhoods.
Welcome to the new Kabul, a city ruled by fear of the Taliban.
“It’s like a zombie apocalypse,” a 20-year-old women’s rights activist says.
Around Kabul airport, chaos reigns as thousands of people mass, desperate to flee ahead of the August 31 deadline for the US withdrawal.
But everywhere else, the streets are eerily quiet.
“People almost don’t go outside and (when they do) they are in a rush,” the activist says. “People get home as soon as they can.”
Under the ousted government, an increasing number of women were adopting Western clothing, attending university, and working.
Now, even in Kabul, women hardly venture out of their homes. Burka sales have rocketed.
Many Afghans fear a repeat of the brutal interpretation of Islamic law that the Taliban implemented when first in power from 1996-2001.
The Taliban have vowed a softer, more inclusive regime this time around, offering assurances of rights to women.

However, the activist says she has been unable to return to university since the Taliban’s stunning military victory on August 15.
She says the hardliners do not want women to attend class until they can segregate classes along gender lines.
“I think it’s an idiotic decision,” she says, because there simply aren’t enough female university teachers.
The Afghanistan images that could tarnish Joe Biden’s legacy
The bank she works for has also barred her from returning, citing fears for her safety.
On the city walls, advertisement posters featuring female models have either been defaced or torn down.
Pop music, banned outright under the Taliban’s former regime, can no longer be heard in Kabul.
Only the sound of children playing – oblivious perhaps to the depth of the transformation under way in their homeland – breaks the silence.

Widespread fear, says a Kabul banker, is working to the Taliban’s advantage as they seek to establish their dominance.
“They don’t have any army to control people but the fear is controlling everyone,” he says on condition of anonymity.
While the Taliban leadership strives to project an image of an organised movement capable of governing, the reality on the ground is that the militants’ behaviour varies greatly from place to place.
“Some groups are acting good and nice but some of them go to restaurants without paying,” the banker says.
Chilling photo from Kabul shows why Afghan women fear Taliban rule
In the southeastern city of Khost, long a conservative city seized by the Taliban shortly before Kabul fell, the militants appear to have adopted a softer approach.
“After a few days, the situation returned to normal. The flow of the city has slowed down but many shops and small businesses have reopened now,” a local aid worker says.
“Boys and girls go to school like before,” he says.


“The attitude of the Taliban towards the people is much softer than what people thought,” he adds, noting he danced with friends at a wedding held last week.
However, some residents fear economic woes, particularly with government services halted.
“Many people lost their jobs, they are afraid of a bad economic situation,” he says.
At the market in the northern city of Kunduz, Taliban militants use loudspeakers to announce their new rules to residents.
‘War is over’: key Afghanistan dates since 2001
Devastated by weeks of fighting leading up to the Taliban’s win, the city is now starting to see some rebuilding – though progress is slow.
“People started rebuilding their shops but not the homes because people fled and did not return, or don’t have the money to rebuild,” a local business owner says.
Some poorer residents are so scared of the impact the regime change may have that they have stopped buying fruit and even using soap, he says.
“They think they should save because in the future there is no way to earn money.”


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Afghanistan

Streets eerily quiet in Kabul where Afghans fear Taliban rule

Taliban fighters at a checkpoint on the road in Kabul. Photo: AP

Afghans wait in front of Kabul Bank, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, 25. 15, 2021. The Taliban wrested back control of Afghanistan nearly 20 years after they were ousted in a U.S.-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks. Their return to power has pushed many Afghans to flee, fearing reprisals from the fighters or a return to the brutal rule they imposed when they last ran the country. (AP Photo)

Afghan women walk by posters of Taliban leaders and flags in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 25. 2021. The Taliban wrested back control of Afghanistan nearly 20 years after they were ousted in a U.S.-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks. Their return to power has pushed many Afghans to flee, fearing reprisals from the fighters or a return to the brutal rule they imposed when they last ran the country. (AP Photo)

Chilling photo from Kabul shows why Afghan women fear Taliban rule

A Taliban fighter walks past a Kabul beauty salon with images of women defaced. Photo: AFP

The facade of a beauty saloon is pictured with images of women defaced using a spray paint in Shar-e-Naw in Kabul on August 18, 2021. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)

‘War is over’: key Afghanistan dates since 2001

A US military map of Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, a bombing campaign against the Taliban, in late 2001. File photo: Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai holds up his ink-stained finger after voting in the presidential election in Kabul June 14, 2014. Afghans headed back to the polls on Saturday for a second round of voting to elect a successor to President Hamid Karzai in a decisive test of Afghanistan's ambitions to transfer power democratically for the first time in its tumultuous history. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

FILE PHOTO: Anti-Taliban Afghan fighters watch several explosions from U.S. bombings in the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan December 16, 2001. REUTERS/Erik de Castro/File Photo

In this image released by the White House and digitally altered by the source to diffuse the paper in front of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, Sunday, May 1, 2011, in Washington. (Pete Souza/The White House via AP)

FILE PHOTO: Sgt. William Olas Bee, a U.S. Marine from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmser in Helmand Province of Afghanistan May 18, 2008. The Marine was not injured. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic/File Photo

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Many Afghans fear a return of the brutal interpretation of Islamic law under the Taliban
In Kabul, burka sales have rocketed and women hardly venture out of their homes



Streets that were once bustling with life have fallen silent. Few women dare to leave their homes. Fighters patrol the neighbourhoods. Welcome to the new Kabul, a city ruled by fear of the Taliban.


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Islamic militancy

Taliban

Streets eerily quiet in Kabul where Afghans fear Taliban rule

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Many Afghans fear a return of the brutal interpretation of Islamic law under the Taliban In Kabul, burka sales have rocketed and women hardly venture out of their homes

Many Afghans fear a return of the brutal interpretation of Islamic law under the Taliban

In Kabul, burka sales have rocketed and women hardly venture out of their homes