The FORBIDDEN Life Of Women In Afghanistan In 2026. I Was SHOCKED! 🇦🇫

This is the hardest video I've ever made. I'm just so sorry. I came to Afghanistan to see what life is really like for women in the most gender segregated society on earth. I wanted to understand the everyday reality of that. But what started as curiosity took a much darker turn. You're not seeing younger female doctors coming up. Women are really suffering. And a discovery that led all the way back to the British government. They have banned all Afghan students from coming to the UK. And strangely, it all started with a search for face cream. So, Mohammad Jan, so this is a bit of a ladies challenge. Basically, I have forgotten my moisturiser. I have googled a shop. It's called Bella Vita. Bella Vita. If you show the location, then... Yes, I'll show the location. And look, it says... Oh, this place. Discover timeless beauty. This is absolutely a first world problem. But I won't lie, I'm also intrigued. Beauty salons are closed here, but beauty shops are not. And I want to see what it's like. Here we go, Bella Vita. This looks very smart indeed. Look at this. I'm not sure what to expect, chaps. Bella Vita. Right then. Thank you, kind sir. So that you know, I filmed this in May 2026. And shops like this are still allowed to sell beauty products. But in June, Taliban directives further tightened rules around women wearing makeup or perfume in public. Stepping in here, the scent is really nice. So they've got rows upon rows of perfumes and fragrance. They have got cosmetics. I can see some makeup. The range of brands here is enormous. And they've got like really big brands. Oud and Roses. Al Maghribi, it's Moroccan. Oh, that's lovely. Al Moroccan. I like that one, Roses. It's for ladies. I think it is. But this one, I'm sure this is for men. Luckily, this was filmed before the new perfume laws came in. They're going to smell us coming through the markets later, aren't they? We won't have to announce our arrival. I feel like I'm a millionaire now. It's great. What you can't see in my shots are the other female shoppers because I wasn't allowed to film them. But they were there, along with two female members of staff who were excited to help me, but asked that I didn't show their faces. What would you advise? The best one, the best one is Midas. Midas. OK, great. Really good Korean brand. OK. It'll hydrate your skin deeply. Now, what about my under eyes? It's also a very, very good brand. Ah, let me see. Right. Oh, brilliant. This was one of the first things I filmed in Afghanistan, so I was still cautious about asking too many questions. Only after I left did I discover the women working here had been medical students, banned from becoming doctors. Bella Vita had given them jobs, which really matters here. But I couldn't stop thinking the country was now two doctors down. Later that day, I would discover the reality of that decision. I mean, this is like a health disaster waiting to happen, I think. For now, I was still exploring everyday life and how Afghans celebrate. How do weddings work when you have to bring a whole load of people, a whole load of men and a whole load of women together to celebrate a wedding? And I'm going to speak to Rahmat. So firstly, Rahmat. Yes. You are getting married soon. Yes, Inshallah, in October or November. So only the man who is getting married, he can join the women's section. OK. And other men, they cannot. When married couples arrive in a wedding venue, they walk up the stairs together and they then have to separate. Separate, of course. So what I'm learning is that when guests enter a wedding, they will come up the stairs in that room and then basically the men will stay there and then the women come in here. And then you have these screens halfway down. So the men will always stay that side with the food and then the women will come in this side and the bride and groom will come into this area as well. To fully understand the route for the bride and groom, I asked Rahmat to give me a demo. No, no, let me find the music first. Find the music, yeah, yeah. OK, Mohammad Jan, today you're going to be Rahmat's bride. Yeah. Because... All right, here we go. Ready? Come on, you do. Show me how you do it. Yes. All right, so... OK, so... I don't know who is bride. Me, I don't know who is bride. You, you're the bride. I don't know who is bride. OK, I'm just kidding. Me, I just don't know who is bride. This is so funny. OK, ready? Serious, be serious. No jokes now. No jokes. No jokes, boys. Come on. Wow. And then, and then what happens? So in, in this room... Yeah. Is the women, the women are in this room, yeah? Yes. And they are just, what are they doing? Are they crying? Because you've got, you've got married? Yeah, some people will get emotional. No broken hearts? No, no broken hearts. So happy tears. So you sit up here. And if there's a music, they will dance, you know, the female, woman. And then the men just get to eat the other side of the screen? Yeah, yeah. I see, so they are this side. Now, it's pretty rare to see images of true cultural Afghan dress because most reports shared are the blue burqas. But here in the wedding hall, I got a glimpse. Right, so let me get this straight. So basically, there's three outfit changes and I've just got my head around it. The bride and the groom will arrive wearing their gear. She will wear like a white dress. Once she comes here, she will then change into this traditional dress, which she'll wear for a short period of time. And then she will change into this spectacular piece. And they'll be dancing and all sorts. And these other dresses that happen to be here are a gift. So there is a wedding tonight. And these dresses are going to be worn tonight. Pray for me. I'll get married soon. And I will invite you also in my wedding. That would be amazing. And I wish you all the luck. The thing is, Rahmat, the thing is, do you know the rules about one's married life? She is never wrong. No. You will always be wrong. Of course. OK? Yeah. You're going to have a great life. Yeah, thank you so much. The wedding clothes showed me one side of Afghan women's lives, colourful and glamorous. But what do women wear outside on the public streets of Kabul? To find out, I headed into one of the city's markets. Now we've come to the Lisa Mariam market. And the reason I wanted to come was because I wanted to see how it is out and about. How many men? How many women? So is this specifically a women's market? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. For some balance, this is Kandahar, filmed when I visited in 2024. There may be hundreds of women on Kabul streets, but that is not the case everywhere. Here, women were barely visible and almost every woman I saw wore the blue burqa. There's lots of different styles. There's women wearing all sorts of different abayas and headscarves. A few weeks after I left, considered one of Afghanistan's less conservative cities, like Kabul, were reportedly arrested over hijab rules. People protested and the crackdown turned deadly. So the colour I saw in Kabul should not be mistaken for freedom. And this is where the story starts to get much darker. So we're just walking past one of the parks in the area. It actually looks quite big. It's all kind of like sealed off at the minute and that's because it's under reconstruction apparently. But I know Afghans like their gardens. So it'll be really interesting to see what it's like when it's finished. Later in Jalalabad, I realised the real question wasn't what parks looked like, it was who was allowed inside. So just walking alongside a park here. So am I right in thinking that women can't go in there? Not the local women. No. International tourists, they can go there. So women are allowed where I am, on this side of the railings, but in the peaceful park with the manicured gardens, they're banned. And I just think this really needs to change. It's just not on. So you know the fairground, can everybody go in that? Can everyone go in there? Not really, only men can go there. Only men can have fun basically. Women aren't allowed in. The Taliban have said these rules are to keep women safe. If it was really that dangerous, you would not allow foreign women to walk through them freely and you certainly wouldn't allow children to play in them. It's a strange feeling thinking that because I hold a different passport, just because I hold a different passport, I have access to somewhere like that. Whereas the locals who you would think should be top priority, don't. And I'm fully aware of the fact that as I go through this city, I'm going through it in a very different way, with a very different experience to local women. Here we've got the gardens on the inside. Look, it's totally going to be redone. Oh, it's a massive space. Birds are enjoying it. I think they might have a little bit more freedom. As well as the parks, female-only gyms have closed and beauty salons have closed. And it would appear to me that those spaces would have been very safe for women. So why did they need to close? The interesting thing here is that you can ask a million people. Nobody actually knows the answer. If safety were really the priority, girls would not be banned from schools and universities and the next place I visited showed exactly why. So I'm with one of the doctors here and what's great is that it's a female doctor. As a woman myself, obviously for certain things, medical things, I like to see a female doctor. Is that the same here in Afghanistan? Yeah, yeah, exactly. They want to go to a female doctor. They want to see a female doctor. I've been told by my Afghan friends that for women's health issues, especially gynaecological care, it can be extremely difficult for male doctors to treat female patients here. And that led me to my next question. The thing is, though, is that as you get older, are there going to be more female doctors coming up behind you or are you the last one? There is no doctor to come after me. You can see the last of the doctors, the last of the female doctors here. And of course, the question is, what on earth are they going to do when these doctors get older? Like, you cannot not have female doctors. I mean, this is like a health disaster waiting to happen. I left the clinic shaken. I had no idea, however, that the next woman I met would bring me straight back to the same crisis. I'm really keen to find out how men and women can come out and enjoy a meal or a coffee or a chai in the same space. So can you chat me through what you do? Yeah, so basically when women and men are coming here, so we have separate areas for men and women. Okay. Families also. Okay. So as you can see here, we stand here. It's a men's area. Right. So this area here. Yeah, it's a men's area. It's a men's area. And I noticed that this area is kind of open, isn't it? Yes. So as soon as you come in, this is the area that you see. So this is the men's area. Yeah, yeah. Okay. And then if we look over here, we have these screens. I see. And it says family restaurant. Yeah, that's the family part. So with this family area, can men go in as part of a family? Yeah, if there is family with him. I understand. So if it's basically male friends meeting, they go this side. If it's family members like husband, wife, or related, they go through there. And then also women can go in there. Yeah, women. In a group on their own. Group of women and friends. Yeah, they can go. Do you think that's something that's been part of Afghan culture for many, many, many years? I don't think so. No, you think it's more recent? Yes. Before this, everyone was gathering together, sitting together, eating together. Yeah. Now, obviously, filming wise, I need to be careful because I don't want to capture anyone on camera, but we're very early today. Okay, I just want to check there's no one here. Oh, there's no one. Okay, good. We're very early because obviously I don't want to turn the camera on anybody. Could we have two cappuccinos, milk cake? Please, special call. We talked about how few options are left for women in Afghanistan now and how she helps women learn skills like sewing. Then she told me what her life had looked like before and suddenly the warning from the clinic felt very real. I was studying medical science and I was hoping to specialise my field in gynaecology. No way. Yeah. Gosh, so how many years did you do? I did four years of medical. Four years? You'd studied for four years towards becoming a fully-pledged gynaecologist? Yes, yeah. Do you think there's any sign of change? No, day by day it's getting even worse. Life doesn't have any meaning for us. Women are really suffering. It's very suffocating for us. We are searching for a way to go abroad to study. Even the world has shut us off. We are not getting any chance to do something for us, for ourselves. It's a waste of life, you know. Everything is shattered for us. Everything is banned for us. Even the world has shut us off. Those words stayed with me as I walked above Kabul that evening in a place closed to local women, supposedly for their safety. But after I left the country, the regime introduced a new rule that Amnesty International says enables child marriage. That is not protection. But to make women's hardship even worse, if that were actually possible, I received a shocking message from someone in the UK. What would you say if I told you that the current British government's policies are inadvertently supporting the Taliban in keeping women at home here and uneducated? Come with me to Oxford University. As I left Afghanistan, I realised two things. Firstly, something shocking was happening at home in the UK impacting Afghan women. And secondly, that it might be possible for all of us to do something to help them. I received a message when I was in Kabul from a director at Oxford University, and he said to me they have banned all Afghan students from coming to the UK. Among those affected are Afghan women who continued their education in secret after the Taliban banned girls from school. And some had secured places at leading UK universities, including Oxford. Amnesty International has called it cruel and ineffective. Right, I have infiltrated Oxford University. And Yama apparently is down here. Look at this place. This is where the brains of Britain exist. Yama is Afghan and works at Oxford University as a clinical trials and data management director whilst studying for his doctorate. He was part of the core team behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine and has also contributed to Ebola vaccine research, earning honours including a Pride of Britain Award and GQ Hero of the Year. How are you doing? Thank you. Welcome. Welcome to Leneka College. This is a wonderful, one of my favourite places to be. Yama explained that the government introduced a visa break because it says too many people arrive on visas and later claim asylum. Now, Afghan student-linked asylum claims make up less than half a percent of all UK asylum claims. Yet every Afghan student, including women, are now blocked from UK universities. This is the main library. So basically, these Afghan students, this should be where they are in September, where they're coming, isn't it? They should be here. They get a visa, they will be actually here and doing a lot of study. Wow. At least four Afghan students had already been offered places at Oxford and Yama knows just how life-changing that moment can be. But like, knowing how happy you were to get the news that you had been accepted into Oxford, you will understand how, say, those four students in Afghanistan felt to get the news. Now, how do you think they then felt when the British government said, oh, I'm sorry, but you just can't come? Yeah, I can express it in words because, yeah, I can express it. At the moment, probably we break them into small pieces that even putting them together will take years and years. Yeah, it's unbelievable. In my view, this is politics over proportionality. The government gets to claim it's being tough on immigration, but this policy barely affects asylum numbers whilst shutting the door on women who risked everything for an education. What are we going to do about this, Yama? What do you think with your clever brain? Speaking as one person is not going to help. No. Or both of us talking about it's not going to help, right? So we need support of people. We need people to help us and make us proud, make UK proud. So we have to stand for that. So probably the best way will be to put a petition together. Yeah, let's do it. And then ask people to sign. Let's do it. So I need your support. Yama and I have set up two petitions, one for Brits, which is the British parliamentary petition, and one which is change.org for everybody. Now, with the British one, if we can hit 100,000 signatures, it means potentially we could get this debated in parliament. That's a really big deal. Both links are in the Linktree link below in my description. I have to be honest. This is not going to be easy. So if you've been touched by what you've seen today and you want to give the voiceless a voice, please help me. Sign and share. Everything is shattered for us. Everything is burnt for us. You can bring our voices to the air, sir. Yeah, I'll try. Thank you so much. I'm just so sorry.