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Afghanistan

'It’s just rubbish': Experts doubt Taliban's promises on women and girls

  • The Taliban have made vague promises to protect women's rights within the norms of Islamic law.
  • Analysts are skeptical the Taliban's evolution on women's rights is real.
  • U.S. and other countries call on Taliban to guarantee protection of women.

WASHINGTON – For the young Afghan woman, the first person in her family to attend a university, her college diploma was a point of family pride.

In the hands of the Taliban, it could be her death sentence.

Terrified that Taliban insurgents might come knocking on her door now that the regime is back in power, the young woman threw her hard-earned document in the trash. Later, she became alarmed the Taliban might dig through her garbage, so she yanked the diploma from the trash and burned it.

“That’s how scared (women) are,” said Marie Clarke of Women for Women International, the human rights group for whom the young Afghan woman worked. USA TODAY is not publishing her name due to the risk of violent retaliation. 

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