Living in a woman’s body: the Taliban fear our beauty, strength – and resistance

Growing up in Afghanistan I was taught to hide my body. Now I see it as a symbol of rebellion against those who would try to control me

As a child, I never rode bicycles or played sports such as gymnastics and karate because it was not good for girls". I later understood it was to avoid the risk of breaking my hymen and losing" my virginity, but I only understood the magnitude of this loss" when my cousin and best friend got married. She had been abused by a mullah - a religious cleric - as a baby. Her mother was less worried about the trauma caused to her daughter by the abuse than she was about her daughter's hymen having been broken as a result.

These fears were not misplaced. When my cousin did not bleed on her wedding night, she was sent back to her mother's home the next morning beaten black and blue. Nobody questioned or blamed the husband.