A female university student in Kabul says 'I am the victim of this political war that men started'

• A female university student expressed concern for her future after the Taliban retook Afghanistan.
• She wrote in The Guardian: "I feel like I am the victim of this political war that men started."
• Women living under the last Taliban rule had their personal freedoms stripped away.

A female university student in Kabul said she feels like the victim of a war started by men and expressed a grave concern for her country's future, in a first-hand account The Guardian published on Sunday.

The unnamed woman, who was set to graduate in November from the American University of Afghanistan and Kabul University, said she was devastated to see the Taliban retake the country.

"In Afghanistan now we are not allowed to be known as the people we are," she wrote.

She continued:

"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 favorite 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."

She described fearful faces of women in her surroundings, alongside men whom she said didn't want women to be educated and made fun of them.

She also said having identification or awards from school is risky, and that there will be no jobs for women in Afghanistan.

"I did not expect that we would be deprived of all our basic rights again and travel back to 20 years ago. That after 20 years of fighting for our rights and freedom, we should be hunting for burqas and hiding our identity," she wrote.

During the Taliban's last rule from 1996-2001, the group imposed harsh policies that severely decimated the personal freedoms of women across Afghanistan. The militant group said during a press conference on Tuesday it was "committed to the rights of women," but only "within the framework of Sharia," the strict Islamic religious law.

Residents are deeply skeptical the Taliban will honor any promises to uphold the rights of women.