One Woman’s Eye-Witness Account of Life Under Taliban Rule
Why Read This
What Makes This Article Worth Your Time
Summary
What This Article Is About
Maryam Mahjoba, a 29-year-old Afghan writer who uses a wheelchair, offers an intimate chronicle of life in Kabul since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. Through 45 numbered vignettes—”pictures” as she calls them—she captures the daily realities of systematic repression: teenage girls barred from schools, women forced from their jobs, music banned, mandatory dress codes enforced by the Vice and Virtue squad, and the constant fear that permeates every aspect of existence.
Despite witnessing mass emigration, terrorist attacks, house-to-house searches, and the destruction of women’s achievements, Mahjoba remains in Kabul with her family. She documents how the Taliban dictates everything from seating arrangements in cars to friendships, while ordinary Afghans adapt, resist quietly, or flee. Writing under a pen name for safety, she preserves her identity as a writer because “more than any politician, it is this writer who will be of more use to my homeland.”
Key Points
Main Takeaways
Witness to Sudden Collapse
The Taliban’s takeover in August 2021 happened with stunning speed as soldiers surrendered province after province without fighting.
Systematic Erasure of Women
Girls over 12 were banned from schools, women removed from most jobs, and all aspects of female life regulated by the Taliban.
Mass Exodus and Desperation
Thousands fled to the airport in chaotic scenes; others died at gates or crossing borders seeking safety abroad.
Quiet Forms of Resistance
Despite restrictions, women continue teaching in madrasas, girls study secretly, and writers document their experiences under pen names.
Continuing Terror Attacks
Groups like Daesh carry out deadly bombings targeting civilians, including the Kaaj educational center attack that killed 45 students.
Psychological and Economic Collapse
Depression, suicides, unemployment, and poverty pervade daily life while families struggle to maintain hope amid unrelenting darkness.
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Article Analysis
Breaking Down the Elements
Main Idea
Bearing Witness Through Personal Narrative
The article chronicles how ordinary life in Kabul transformed into a landscape of fear and restriction following the Taliban’s 2021 takeover, told through the intimate observations of a disabled woman writer who refuses to abandon her homeland or her identity despite systematic oppression targeting women, artists, and anyone associated with the previous government.
Purpose
To Document and Humanize Suffering
Mahjoba writes to preserve testimony of life under Taliban rule for those who cannot speak, to combat international indifference by making abstract political developments viscerally personal, and to assert that documenting truth through writing remains an act of resistance more powerful than politicians’ empty promises or international abandonment of Afghanistan.
Structure
Fragmented Vignettes Building Cumulative Impact
Chronological Introduction → 45 Numbered “Pictures” (Vignettes) → Reflective Conclusion. The fragmented structure mirrors traumatic memory and overwhelming reality, moving non-linearly between personal observations, family stories, political context, and historical parallels while accumulating details that create an immersive portrait of life under authoritarian rule.
Tone
Elegiac, Observant & Quietly Defiant
The tone blends grief for lost futures with precise documentation of daily humiliations, maintaining literary sensibility through references to Chekhov and Persian poetry while expressing profound sadness, quiet anger, and stubborn determination to preserve both personal identity and collective memory through writing despite pervasive danger.
Key Terms
Vocabulary from the Article
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Tough Words
Challenging Vocabulary
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A disastrous event causing great damage, distress, or destruction; a catastrophe or tragedy of significant magnitude.
“The image of Syria and the calamity that Daesh brought upon it is in front of everyone’s eyes.”
Traditional Afghan clothing consisting of a long shirt and loose trousers worn by both men and women in Afghanistan.
“How good do these Taliban commanders look in Afghan clothes [the perahan tunban and the lungi].”
An Islamic educational institution, typically providing religious instruction but sometimes offering broader educational subjects including literature and mathematics.
“Meena, who is two years older than me and studied economics, is teaching Hafiz’s poems at the madrasa.”
A long coat or cloak worn in Central Asia, often richly decorated and traditionally worn over other clothing as an outer garment.
“Many families are there; the women and girls wearing black chapan coats, in a way that hides their colourful blouses and jeans.”
Expressing sorrow or lamentation, especially for something lost or past; having a mournful, reflective quality characteristic of an elegy.
“I listen to the news and, when I get nauseous from the political games, escape into my novels.”
To strengthen or secure one’s position of power or control; to make something physically or politically stronger and more unified.
“No government cares about the wellbeing of the population, only to consolidate its power, even if it comes at the cost of thousands of lives.”
Reading Comprehension
Test Your Understanding
5 questions covering different RC question types
1According to the article, the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan involved significant armed resistance from government soldiers across most provinces.
2Why does the narrator say she holds the hand of the writer within her tightly?
3Which sentence best captures why the narrator continues to experience each day under Taliban rule as lasting longer than it actually does?
4Based on the article, evaluate these statements about life in Kabul after the Taliban takeover:
The narrator destroyed her employment contracts and documents to avoid being targeted during house-to-house searches.
Public celebrations of Nowruz continued under Taliban rule with only minor restrictions on music and dancing.
Many university professors who had encouraged students to engage in political struggle left Afghanistan immediately when the Taliban arrived.
Select True or False for all three statements, then click “Check Answers”
5What can be inferred about the narrator’s relationship to her physical disability in the context of Taliban rule?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
The fragmented vignette structure mirrors how traumatic memory works—not as linear narrative but as snapshot moments that recur and overlap. Each “picture” captures a specific scene or realization, reflecting how overwhelming experiences resist coherent chronology. This structure also echoes the way survivors of ongoing trauma experience time: disjointed, recursive, and weighted differently than ordinary experience. The numbered format allows readers to experience Kabul’s collapse through accumulated details rather than imposed interpretation.
This metaphor operates on multiple levels. Literally, the author uses a wheelchair due to physical disability, but she extends this to describe Afghanistan’s political paralysis—unable to “stand on its own two feet” due to foreign intervention, internal corruption, and Taliban control. The comparison also highlights how both her personal immobility and her country’s political immobility are imposed conditions, not inherent limitations. Under Taliban rule, she observes that disability status becomes irrelevant since all women face systematic immobilization.
The Kaaj bombing represents the targeted destruction of Afghanistan’s future through attacking students preparing for university entrance exams on their day off. The detail that victims were primarily from poor Hazara families (an ethnic minority) underscores how violence compounds existing marginalization. The subsequent memorial library—filled with books donated by community members including the narrator’s family—becomes an act of resistance, asserting that knowledge and memory cannot be completely destroyed even when lives are taken.
Readlite provides curated articles with comprehensive analysis including summaries, key points, vocabulary building, and practice questions across 9 different RC question types. Our Ultimate Reading Course offers 365 articles with 2,400+ questions to systematically improve your reading comprehension skills.
This is an Intermediate level article that requires understanding of contemporary political history, some cultural context about Afghanistan, and ability to navigate non-linear narrative structure. While the prose is accessible and emotionally direct, readers need facility with literary devices like metaphor and fragmented storytelling. The content demands engagement with complex themes including political oppression, gender discrimination, and resistance strategies. Vocabulary includes both everyday language and specialized terms related to Afghan culture and Islamic institutions.
The professors—particularly Mr. A—represent the gap between intellectual advocacy and lived commitment. These educators encouraged students to engage politically and resist injustice, but immediately fled when danger arrived, abandoning those without the privilege of second passports. This critique reveals class dimensions of resistance: those with resources could escape, while ordinary Afghans faced consequences of political struggles they’d been told were their responsibility. The author doesn’t judge their departure harshly but notes the painful irony with measured observation.
The Ultimate Reading Course covers 9 RC question types: Multiple Choice, True/False, Multi-Statement T/F, Text Highlight, Fill in the Blanks, Matching, Sequencing, Error Spotting, and Short Answer. This comprehensive coverage prepares you for any reading comprehension format you might encounter.
