Afghan women's rights in firing line as Taliban return to power

Over the last two decades, significant progress was made in cities with women filling universities and entering the workforce in ambitious positions in the media, politics, the judiciary and even the security forces. Photo: AFP

Aisha Khurram spent a sleepless first night under Taliban rule, the sound of gunfire and evacuation planes puncturing the silence as she reflected on a day that "shattered our souls and spirits to the core."

"It was like a doomsday for the entire nation to see everything collapse in (the) blink of an eye," she told AFP in a series of messages via Twitter on Monday after Taliban fighters swept into Kabul, and her neighbourhood, uncontested.