[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/15/afghanistan.women.amanpour/art2.jpg caption="Afghan women have fought to receive an education, despite Taliban rules."]
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Special to CNN
Afghan women won the world's attention nine years ago following the routing of Taliban troops at the hands of U.S. and Afghan forces. Back then, a rush of dignitaries flew to Kabul to denounce the Taliban's brutal treatment of women, although the world had largely forgotten these same women during the previous seven years.
No school, no work, no leaving the house without a man - even a boy would do. These are the laws Afghan women learned to live with, because they had to. Yet they also found a way to work around those rules.
Throughout the Taliban years, Afghan women ran aid organizations, practiced medicine, taught schools and ran businesses. They refused to be victims; instead, they led their communities and helped them survive desolate years of economic collapse and political isolation.
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Filed under: Afghanistan • Taliban • Women's Rights |
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Now here is a group of women who are true heroes in my book. I love it when a woman or a group of women take control of their lives and make themselves richer in self-esteem, confidence. Victory over any type of oppression is to be applauded.