My dream is the same as every girl,” high school student Samira*, 21, tells me from a blue cushion in her family’s small, darkened living room in Kabul. “All I think of is studying and being successful. To be in a position where I think: ‘Yes, this is what I want with my life.’”
Samira should be in year 12, with university almost within reach. Instead, she is stuck indoors with her cousin Robina, 15, looking at old books, helping to clean the house and praying for things to get better. They hardly venture out for fear of harassment by the Taliban. Indeed, our clandestine interview has all been the work of a male family friend, who made me wait inside a corner shop before hurrying me through a warren of alleys to reach their courtyard.
