In recent times, life for women in Afghanistan has become increasingly difficult - and increasingly dangerous.
Last month, a small group of brave women were out demonstrating for women's right to work and girls' right to go to school.
A few days later, two of the protesters, Tamana Paryani and Parwana Ibrahimi, were arrested.
According to reports, it was men from the Taliban's intelligence service who abducted the women, and now they have "disappeared".
Other women rights activists have demanded that the Taliban release Paryani and Ibrahimi, but at present no one knows where they are being held or what has happened to them.
The Taliban do not allow women to demonstrate and are now trying to intimidate women into silence.
Back to the 1990s?
Panic, fear and oppression spread among women and girls.
Will it be as it was during the brutal reign of terror of the Taliban between 1996-2001?
Then women were not allowed to work, girls were not allowed to go to school and women were not allowed to leave home alone without a male relative as a companion.
And those who violated the Taliban's strict Sharia law were severely punished.
If women showed skin, they could be whipped in public.
In adultery, they could be stoned to death.
Taliban 2.0
But since the Taliban took power in August last year, it has been different.
The Taliban are still on the charm offensive and want to get the message out that the radical movement has changed, compared to the regime in the 1990s.
So far, the Taliban have shown a slightly softer side.
Women employed in the public sector are not allowed to work.
On the other hand, some women work in the private sector.
Girls over the age of 12 are not allowed to go to school.
But in some provinces, local Taliban leaders have still allowed older girls to continue their studies.
And recently the Taliban announced that from March, all girls will receive education.
The Taliban do not want to become a pariah state
But have the Taliban really changed?
Women's rights activists I meet in Afghanistan say that the Taliban do not really want women to work and girls to be educated.
The Taliban see women as second-class citizens, as the weaker sex to be sent home.
According to women's rights activists, only the Taliban say what the outside world wants to hear, so that the regime in Kabul will be recognized and have normal relations with other countries;
for aid, trade and exchange.
The Taliban do not want to become a pariah state as they were in the 1990s.
An urgent issue for the Taliban is to receive international assistance to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe in the country.
The outside world has pressured and conditioned aid on the Taliban respecting women's freedoms and rights.
It is still unclear how it will be, and Afghan women fighters are worried that the outside world will open up for aid and relations without first guaranteeing their rights.
No matter which path the Taliban choose - the hard or a little softer - women in Afghanistan will be among the most oppressed in the world.