Arezo’s honey shop wasn’t commerce. It was survival. Every golden jar sold meant food for her seven children.

Then the Taliban came.

She was in her shop this summer when a group of fighters-turned-officials, with American rifles slung over their shoulders, stormed in.

Her crime was selling honey to male customers as a female business owner, which is forbidden under the Taliban regime. She ended up in jail.

Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban has systematically curbed women’s rights in Afghanistan.

The restrictions affect their daily lives, ranging from preventing them showing their faces in public or driving a car, to forbidding conversations with men and restricting how they dress.