Afghanistan: What happened to the women who protested against the Taliban?

“I was forcefully pulled out of the taxi, they searched my bag and found my phone,” she recalls.

When she refused to give Taliban officials her pass code, she says one of them punched her so hard she thought her ear drum had burst.

They then went through the videos and photos in her phone.

“They got furious and grabbed me by pulling my hair,” she says. “They caught my hands and legs and threw me into the back of their Ranger.”

“They were very violent and repeatedly called me a whore,” Mariam continues. “They handcuffed me and put a black bag over my head, I could not breathe.”

A month later, Parwana too decided to protest against the Taliban, along with a group of fellow students, organising several marches.

But their action was also met with swift reprisal.

“They started torturing me from the moment they arrested me”, says Parwana.

She was made to sit between two male armed guards.

“When I refused to sit there, they moved me to the front, put a blanket over my head and pointed the gun and told me not to move.”

Parwana started feeling “weak and like a walking dead” among so many heavily armed men.

“My face was numb as they slapped me so many times. I was so scared, my entire body was trembling.”