Chaotic scenes unfolded in Kabul when America withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban marched into the streets of the city and captured it without resistance. While the world watched with horror, desperate Afghans, who suddenly lost their last hope of freedom, tried to flee the city to safety.
Amidst this bedlam, a nascent unorganised street protest movement was shaping up in Kabul. It was led by women, who were at the receiving end of the Taliban’s brutal dictatorship that curtailed women’s rights and freedom.
Filmmaker Sarah Mani’s documentary Bread and Roses, which premiered at the recently-concluded Cannes Film Festival, captures this brief moment in history — a motley group of brave Afghan women marched against one of the most brutal regimes in modern history, demanding freedom from oppression. Holding handmade placards and chanting, “Bread, work, education and freedom,” these women were the only resistance the Taliban faced in Kabul.
