60 minutes rewind
even as bombs continue to rain down on afghanistan for the afghan people this is the latest chapter
in 23 years of war the afghan men and boys have fought and died in those wars so women
became the pillars of afghan society it's doctors lawyers professors judges but all
that changed five years ago when the taliban took power and took away women's rights since then
for the women of afghanistan the veil the burqa has become the symbol of the taliban's power
even women who fled to the united states have been afraid to remove that veil of repression
fearing reprisals on their family back home and from taliban supporters here in america
but tonight that changes we have a rare opportunity to meet some courageous young women
recent refugees who unveil more than just their faces they also unveil a glimpse sometimes
horrifying of life under the taliban huma marina and gulnar were all students when the taliban took
over in 1996. sonia was working as a doctor and myla was a psychologist at the local university
what they have in common are stories of persecution and loss who did you lose i
was my father and my brother huma was 18 when the taliban attacked her town and she says
randomly massacred hundreds of civilians they killed everybody on the streets and the shops
you didn't see anybody they got into our house and got my father and my brother and took them out
did you ever see them again after they were taken
i didn't see them um after a night our neighbor came and said that
um there is like a downtown there's a special place for people
that yesterday they were being killed and if you want to go ahead and see and find your loved ones
so my mom and my with my old sister went and they came back with broken hearts
afghanistan is a country of broken hearts a nation of people with stories about loss of life
and loss of freedom forced under the burqa women are forbidden to leave the house without a male
relative they can't attend work or school they can't laugh out loud and if they're wearing nail
polish they could have their nails pulled out one day i went with my mother for grocery shopping
and i used the nail polish on my toys perhaps because she was only 13 when the taliban saw
the polish they let gulnar go with a beating but they also beat her mother for letting her wear
the polish fear of these brutal punishments kept some women virtual prisoners in their own homes
myla says that for five years she left the house only once or twice a month
but for many women staying home was no safer talbon ordered people who had young girls
and they said put a flag on your roof on the roof of your house a white flag so nobody can
come to your house or do something but but that wasn't that wasn't the right thing actually it
wasn't what they really meant they meant to go to their house and make their daughters to marry them
that's what happened to gulnar's family five years ago a taliban soldier decided he wanted
to marry her 16 year old sister they come two or three times to talk with my mother and my father
my father said no i don't want to be married with my daughter so and after that two persons
come and took my father three days later she says they left his mutilated body in front
of the house and then they came back and took her sister anyway this was five years ago yeah
five years and five years you've never heard anything about your sister never saw her
it's a country where everything has been turned inside out university professors
have become beggars and the main attraction at a sports arena is no longer the game
it's an execution complete with refreshments for the spectators
myla says she saw a couple being stoned to death the crime she says a hidden love affair
they buried them alive all the way up to their necks they gave stones to everyone
ordering them to throw the rocks at the couple until they were stoned to death
taliban law prohibits executing a pregnant woman but a year ago when the religious
police the dreaded department of vice and virtue wanted to break that rule they went
to the hospital and asked the gynecologist on duty to lie about the woman's condition
that gynecologist was sonia one of the few women allowed to work under the taliban
they ordered me to write that she's not pregnant but i remember that he
was illiterate the taliban officials i told them that i wrote that she wasn't pregnant
but i wrote in the document this woman is carrying a baby when the taliban discovered her deception
sonia says she was fired and that her act of rebellion cost her more than just her job
on my way back home i saw a land cruiser behind my house usually the taliban drive
land cruisers i was very panicked i asked the neighbor what's happening what's going on
and they said please don't go to the house it's all about you
and they told me that the taliban had killed my brother sonia says she never went home again
the next day she escaped like so many others to neighboring pakistan she hasn't seen her
family since resettled by refugee agencies in the united states within the last two months
she and the others are beginning to relish the simple freedoms they've been denied for years
freedom to study to dress as they please to wear nail polish to shop and to pray
openly in a mosque as gulnar and her young sisters did last friday for the first time in six years
does it feel strange to be in the united states openly talking about this not covering your head
if you don't want to z we feel very free but sometimes i get nervous when i leave
the house i think where's my burka where's my veil then i remember this is america