‘Their Full Identity Has Been Taken From Them’

After Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15, 2021, Western media assigned the team a new moniker: “Taliban 2..” Without a doubt, the Islamic fundamentalist group that experienced dominated Afghanistan in the latter half of the ’90s — overseeing a theocratic routine that repressed females, spiritual minorities and political opponents — promised to variety an “open, inclusive Islamic government” and that gals were “going to be quite lively in the culture.”

Danish photographer Nanna Muus Steffensen, 36, has lived in Kabul given that 2019. As the global media slowly and gradually turned away, Muus noticed swiftly how the Taliban commenced to renege on its promises and roll out a series of repressive steps, typically focused at Afghan ladies. The caretaker cupboard set up in September was comprised of hardliners — and no gals. That very same month, Afghanistan grew to become the only nation exactly where ladies could not attend higher school. And in Could, women were requested to protect their faces in community and to only go away home when essential. It was, says Muus, “a downward spiral over a year.”

Muus’ photographic operate has explored the a lot of strategies — some everyday and some lifestyle-and-death — these limitations have altered everyday living in Kabul. Fewer gals are found on the streets, and the colorful garments they after wore has been swapped for darker clothes. Less gals are permitted to get the job done, contributing to an financial disaster in which additional than 90 p.c of Afghans are struggling from food insecurity. The plunge of middle-class people into poverty usually means many can no extended manage to go to private hospitals, inundating general public maternity wards. And psychological wellness difficulties are surfacing amongst a technology of ladies suddenly stripped of their expert and social selves. “Their whole identity has been taken away from them — their options, their goal, their long run, their goals,” Muus suggests.