Back in society
Afghan women living under the Taliban were barred from getting an education, working, or even receiving basic medical care. But staff photographer Melanie Stetson Freeman found that the Taliban's ouster gradually reopened doors for women. Foreign aid has helped rebuild schools that young girls freely attend, and classes for adult women have started to lift the darkness of illiteracy. Instruction in poultry-raising, silkscreening, and hairdressing helps widows earn a living wage. And in a country with one of the highest infant and mother mortality rates in the world, UNICEF is training midwives in pre- and postnatal care.
