While the situation in Afghanistan is terrifying for anyone who isn’t a member of the Taliban, it’s especially troubling for women and girls in the country. The Taliban follow strict Sharia law.  When they were in power from 1996-2001 women were not allowed to attend school, had their faces covered, were forced into marriages, had be accompanied by a male relative if they left home.  Many were brutalized, raped and tortured.  So much had changed in Afghanistan since the U.S. arrived.  The thought of returning to those horrific days is now unthinkable for a generation that has grown up in a different world.

ABC News’ Ian Pannell said as he made his way around Kabul over the last day, “The most striking thing out there is we didn’t see one single woman. Half the population is now hiding behind closed doors. That is the new Afghanistan we leave behind.” An even more disturbing scenario comes from Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO).

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations has written extensively about women in Afghanistan. Today, in a piece for The Washington Post she wrote:

Millions of Afghan girls and women are fearful, wondering what lies ahead. They had banked on a future with their fates tied to those of the United States and its NATO allies, but now those ties have been suddenly severed. The international community is looking away just as these women are looking for a lifeline.

 

Women who have sought an education over the last twenty years have found their lives crumble within a matter of days. A University student in Kabul wrote a stirring account of what her life is right now for The Guardian. She said she was set to graduate in November, “but this morning everything flashed before my eyes.”

I worked for so many days and nights to become the person I am today, and this morning when I reached home, the very first thing my sisters and I did was hide our IDs, diplomas and certificates. It was devastating. Why should we hide the things that we should be proud of? In Afghanistan now we are not allowed to be known as the people we are.

As a woman, I feel like I am the victim of this political war that men started. I felt like I can no longer laugh out loud, I can no longer listen to my favourite songs, I can no longer meet my friends in our favourite cafe, I can no longer wear my favourite yellow dress or pink lipstick. And I can no longer go to my job or finish the university degree that I worked for years to achieve.

Watch more from NBC News above.