They stayed to fight the Taliban. Now the protesters are being hunted down

Women's rights activists fear for their lives as Afghanistan's new rulers infiltrate, detain, beat and torture groups of protesters

A month ago, Reshmin was busy organising protests against Taliban rule in online groups of hundreds of fellow women's rights activists. Now the 26-year-old economics graduate must operate clandestinely, dressing in disguise and only demonstrating with a select few.

If things continue like this, there will be no future for women in Afghanistan. It's better if the future never arrives," says Reshmin, who spoke to the Guardian using only her first name, which means silk" in Farsi, out of security concerns. Each time we go out, we say farewell because we might not make it back alive."