Kabul under Taliban control: Checkpoints, beatings, fear

A female government employee in her 20s said Taliban fighters arrived at the gate outside her apartment building Monday morning. “I was inside my home, and I was shaking,” she said. “We locked every door.”…

The woman burned every document tying her to government work, she said, in case the Taliban raid her home. She worried that insurgents might get access to the biometric data she gave when she was hired and track her down.

“I still have my university documents. I don’t want to burn all the past hard work that I did,” she said, risking discovery. The Taliban oppose women seeking higher education.

Walking through the streets on Sunday, she said, she passed Taliban fighters who shot her angry looks. Like many Kabul residents, it was the first time since she was a child during the Taliban regime 20 years ago that she stood face to face with militants.