10/09/2026
| A Blue Veil I wear made me Silent
Beginning in 1919, under the rule of King Amanullah Khan of Afghanistan, together with his wife, Queen Soraya Tarzi, they challenged and reformed conservative traditions and provided Afghan women a breadth of opportunities that they enjoyed. In this era, women are enjoying liberating times in public places, they can walk outside in beautiful garments without fear. Education slowly took the reins during this time, with the first girls' school opening in Kabul, girls took pens and paper and dedicated their time reading books that brought them knowledge. The life they live after graduating is free of forced marriage and safe from the practice of polygamy. For once, Afghanistan was at the forefront of women's emancipation. As they won women's suffrage before the United States of America and Switzerland, as both countries won their right for women's suffrage in 1920 for the USA and 1971 for Switzerland.
Yet, this life of blooming — wilted as soon as the Taliban took power in governance for the second time in 2021. They successfully erased public leisure, banned them from high school and universities, and confined women's voices in a veil commonly known as a Burqa.
The Outside World is Dangerous.
Since August 2021, the de facto authorities (DFA) have issued more than 100 decrees affecting women and girls, stripping them of their rights and institutionalizing discrimination against them, according to the UN Women (2026). Under the Taliban rule, women in Afghanistan are only allowed to roam outside of their houses if it is a strict and urgent necessity, and must be accompanied by a close male relative, known as a Mahram.
The disbelief I felt that even in the 21st century, women are flourishing and bringing glory to their countries was followed with disappointment, knowing that Afghanistan was once a champion of women's rights, now number one in the worst country being born as a woman in forums and surveys.
According to UN Women (2026), 1 in 2 Afghan women now leave home no more than twice a month. Nearly three-quarters report feeling unsafe leaving home without a Mahram, or male guardian, and more than half say they avoid public spaces, such as markets and health facilities, altogether.
To step outside your home as an Afghan woman is like a soldier stepping inside an active war zone. You never know where the enemy is, you never know when you will be shot. All you can do is be as steady as a soldier deployed in the Alps holding their breath, so as not to be detected by an enemy sniper. Holding on to an amulet your beloved mom gave you, wishing you could turn around, but you never had a choice in the first place. The choices you have are either to starve to death inside your house or risk losing your dignity for a piece of bread that can last for hardly a week.
Out of Opportunities.
When we were in elementary school before graduating, we were all up in the sky, hoping and wishing that our dreams of becoming a pilot, a teacher, or even a chef would come true. Bragging about the high school we're entering and preparing ourselves for an academic year that is full of surprises and tribulations, but this reality, full of hope and dreams, is different for young girls in Afghanistan.
Another rule imposed by the Taliban is banning women and girls from high schools and universities, allowing them only to attend primary school.
Nothing more and so much less.
Once you are out of primary school, that is all the education that you get. No high school, and not even a step inside a university. You know less, you learn less, and you are informed less. As a girl in Afghanistan, school is not a place you must be, but inside your own home, or worse, the home of a man you are about to be wed to.
Child marriage has been an issue long overdue in Afghanistan. UNICEF (2021) estimated that 28 percent of Afghan women aged 15–49 years were married before the age of 18. This is additionally supported by UN Women (2026), as they stated that in 2023, nearly 30% of Afghan girls under 18 were married, including 10% under the age of 15.
Before the age of 18, girls outside Afghanistan are still at school, some have fun and post on social media, "Thank God! It's Friday!". Yet, girls in Afghanistan are trapped inside their homes, some together with a man they rarely know, without even a book to read, drop to their knees at night and pray to Allah, "Please, let me live to see it through until Friday."
The Veil that Silences.
Women from all over the world sparked change through speaking up. They rallied on streets and pushed through change, one example is the Women's Suffrage Movement, which granted women the right to vote in an election. Women are steadily climbing the ranks in work-related charts. According to the World Bank Organization's line graph of the global female labor force (2024) shows that it has been steadily increasing since 2020, from 39.5 to 40.2 as of the year 2025. This milestone is successful through years of fighting for their right to work. Yet, at the same time, women in Afghanistan are stripped of their right to contribute in work and to speak up for what is right for them.
According to UN Women (2026), only 7% of women are employed among 84% of men, and they are currently at risk losing up to 20,000 women teachers and 5,400 healthcare workers by 2030 as restrictions on girls’ education and women’s employment continue (UNICEF, 2026).
Imagine losing a single teacher and a doctor, it is already impactful enough for a society. But imagine losing 20,000 teachers and 5,400 doctors? It will surely crumble before the ground even begins to tremble. Women in parliament were also wiped out by the Taliban government, losing the pinnacle of representation in office. According to UN Women (2026), in 2020, Afghan women held over 25% of seats in Parliament and could run for president. Today, they hold no positions in the de facto cabinet.
Losing this much workforce will result to a collapse of scaffolding, the ones that holds it the most are women needed in this line of work, to remove these women, is to remove the foundations of a society built from ages ago, disrespecting the sacrifices and hardships that every women in history has gone through to achieve the freedom they have once longed for.
Removing them silently — yet so deafening and concealing them in a veil of blue, unable to speak for themselves.
Removing the Veil
Women in Afghanistan have experienced every bit of anguish and every piece of discrimination. Living a life as a woman in Afghanistan is like living in prison, yet people inside cell walls have more rights than women inside the four corners of a home.
A flower does not ask for permission to bloom, it demands sunlight. An Afghan woman does not ask for pity; she demands justice. But right now, her sunlight is blocked by a blue veil, and her cry is muffled by our collective silence. If we keep watering their oppression with our quiet compliance, do not be surprised when their garden turns to ash. We must break this silence before every last bloom is lost. Write, protest, sanction, share. Water their freedom instead of their grief. Lift your voice, so they may one day lift their veils.
Then, to end my piece, I have a question. If a blue sky means freedom, then why does a blue burqa demand silence? A groom lifts a bride's veil to hear her say 'I do' — but when an Afghan woman lifts hers, the world refuses to hear her at all and sends her into an endless sea of silence instead?
Disclaimer: SIGRAB is the official name of The Technopacer - Talisay’s segment for column or opinion writing entries. The views and opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the publication and the University.
Column | Plaridel Presas Jr.
Illustration | Anie Almolanida
Layout | Daniel Martirez
