The Taliban didn't just ban schools, impose burqas, and outlaw smartphones. Oh no, that would be too simple. They built a full-fledged system designed to enslave nearly half of Afghanistan's population - 21,701,532 women and girls, give or take a few outdated census numbers.

This system runs on laws that are conveniently changed, forgotten, or scrapped whenever the mood strikes to further oppress women. Take the abolition of the minimum marriage-age law, for instance. Now the only 'legitimate' criterion for a girl's marriage is that she's hit puberty - or, as the Taliban so delicately put it, 'fit for consummation.' Because nothing says 'civilized governance' like legalizing child marriage to prop up an economy the Taliban themselves bankrupted. Families crushed by poverty are encouraged to sell their daughters for a dowry to keep the rest of the household fed. It's a real 'support your family' package, just not for the girl in question.

Then there's the law that legitimizes domestic violence under the euphemism 'corrective beating.' Yes, a husband can beat his wife, as long as he doesn't cause fractures or serious injuries. We're so grateful for the legal clarity. The Taliban also restricted the right to request divorce and shut down most shelters for abused women. And if a woman dares to try to escape this tragicomic nightmare, the 'morality police' will hunt her down like a fugitive - because freedom is apparently a crime.

This chokehold has made Afghanistan one of the few countries where women's suicide rates outpace men's - globally, suicides are almost twice as common among males, but here, 75% to 80% of recorded suicide cases and attempts are women and girls. And if a woman survives an attempt, she often can't find treatment, because women are forbidden from being treated by male doctors. Meanwhile, the number of female doctors is shrinking due to emigration, retirement, and the simple fact that girls can't study to become doctors anymore. So the only option left for many women is to wait for death in silence - because, of course, their voices are considered shameful to be heard.

What do you call a system like this? Enslavement, perhaps? But despite all this, Afghan women are fighting back. They're opening secret schools for girls, documenting violations and publishing them online under pseudonyms, and even staging protests. In June, a rare public demonstration took place in Herat - one of the few since the Taliban's return to power in 2021 after the Americans left - with women and men demanding education, work, and freedom, facing violent crackdowns, arrests, and a media blackout.

But let's be honest: the problem was never that the 'civilized' world doesn't know. It knows exactly what happened and what's being done in Afghanistan. It just chose, as usual, to watch from the sidelines. Because why intervene when you can just Tweet #WomenLifeFreedom and feel good about yourself?