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An entire generation of Afghan girls have had their aspirations suspended by policies systematically excluding them from education and public life.
Neelab Noori was 13 years old when the Taliban walked into Kabul. The first thing she noticed was the silence where her school used to be.
“Soon after the takeover, the first thing they did was close schools,” she said. She had been in eighth grade, attending both school and an academy, the kind of girl who had carefully mapped her bright future out in classrooms. That future dimmed overnight.
She waited two years. Then, in June 2023, her family left Afghanistan for Pakistan.
