This article is part of a Fox News Digital series examining the consequences of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan one year ago this week.
One year after Kabul fell to the Taliban, restrictive policies enforced by the insurgent group have drastically affected women and girls who have seen their liberties curtailed and daily lives brought to a halt.
Not only has Taliban rule led to Afghanistan's crippling economy, food shortages and diplomatic stagnation, but basic human rights for women have been striped.
"This is a man ruling country," Meena Habib, 32, an investigative reporter and one of the few remaining female journalists still in Afghanistan told Fox News Digital. "Women do not have good opportunities."
"But it doesn’t mean we simply [follow] their orders," she added. "We’re trying to cope with their rules."
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Habib has faced severe repercussions for her defiance to the Taliban including blatant intimidation, threats, arrest and several beatings.
The U.N. this month once again called on the Taliban to reverse its oppressive policies and to take steps to ensure that human rights, particularly as they affect women and girls, are secured.
"Nowhere else in the world has there been as wide-spread, systematic and all-encompassing an attack on the rights of women and girls – every aspect of their lives is being restricted under the guise of morality and through the instrumentalization of religion," the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said in an August statement.
The Taliban's oppressive measures have reached nearly every facet of female life, baring them from ordering taxis while unaccompanied by a male escort to enforcing religion-based hijab requirements.
"Everything has been changed in the lives of the Afghan people," one 27-year-old female, who was evacuated to the U.S. during the withdrawal last year, told Fox News Digital. "They have lots of restrictions for the woman.
"If they do not wear the hijab, the Taliban will come to the house, and they will take the men," she explained. "They will beat the men and then demand [that] they force their woman to wear the hijab."
"Security is not good," she added, noting that she wished to remain anonymous to protect her family still in Afghanistan.
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The Taliban have also reportedly begun instituting harsh brands of justice not widely seen since before the U.S.-led military coalition in 2001, including stoning practices and chopping off the hands of accused thieves.
Women have also once again been largely been barred from working unless they are in the medical or educational sectors, and girls are no longer allowed to attend secondary school.
The 27-year-old told Fox News Digital that some women have been allowed to finish their university-level education, though she is skeptical of the Taliban’s motivation behind the move