Inside Afghanistan’s secret schools for girls

Five years after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban’s near-total crackdown on the rights of women and girls has made the country ‘a global outlier with no parallel in the modern world’, according to the United Nations.

The Taliban governed for five years in the late 1990s before the US invasion. Now, as Afghanistan reaches the same milestone with the Taliban’s second stint in power, how is the international community engaging with them this time around?

We speak to the BBC’s chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet, who has reported on the country for decades. She recounts her recent trip to Afghanistan and her conversations with senior Taliban ministers, as well as women and girls trying to challenge their repression.

Producers: Hannah Moore and Sam Chantarasak

Executive producer: Martine Powers

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: An Afghan burqa-clad woman walks along a road at Kolcha Abad village in the Dand district of Kandahar on June 16, 2026. Credit: Sanaullah Seiam/AFP via Getty Images.