Young women living under oppressive Taliban rule in Afghanistan have dared to share their hopes and fears for 2025, which range from an end to “gender apartheid”, to simply going for a walk in the park.
The five women in their twenties have all had their studies or careers interrupted since the Taliban seized control in 2021 and aggressively cracked down on women’s rights.
“My wish for 2025, is to have a life free from the Taliban flag,” one woman says in a recorded video message, sent covertly to our special correspondent Alex Crawford.
“This is not only my wish, but the wish of all Afghan women.”
A second woman hopes “women in Afghanistan will be recognised as human beings”, and another dreams of being able to go “to the park, to the playground and to the beauty salons“.
The women, who are aspiring journalists, writers, lawyers and teachers, all spoke anonymously over fears they would be punished in a country that violently curbs freedom of expression and recently banned contact with foreigners.
All are now largely confined to their homes.
The Islamic fundamentalist group has already excluded women from higher education and most jobs, and forbidden them from speaking or showing their faces in public.
On Saturday, it banned windows in new buildings that look into places where a woman might be seen.
And on Sunday it said it would close any NGOs still employing women, two years after it told them to stop Afghan females working for them, allegedly because they did not wear the Islamic headscarf correctly.
In the highly personal recordings, the women say they want to “learn again” and “walk on the streets without any fear” – and hope the International Criminal Court will prosecute members of the Taliban.
One says despite their “difficult” circumstances, Afghan women “still have hopes and still have dreams”.
“When I see the birds flying in the air, I stare at them and think so deeply [about] how lucky they are,” she says.
She thinks the same when she “[hears] about girls in other countries, how successful they are… I also wish we could do the same. We are also human beings”.
She adds: “I dream of a day when I can also continue my education… have freedom of speech and can say whatever I want… A day when all of the Afghan girls can go to school again, in their lovely uniforms, which I really miss.”
And finally, she dreams “that one day all the Afghan girls can go out of their houses and walk on the streets without any fear”.
She adds: “I request all the people who are hearing us today to never forget us… I hope none of you experience what we are today.”