Since the Taliban took power, does the West have any influence? - BBC News

Five years after the Taliban swept to power, many are asking whether the West has any bargaining chips left

Five years after the Taliban swept to power, does the West have any influence?

ByLyse DoucetChief international correspondent, Reporting fromKabulIn a whitewashed basement in a village south of Kabul, a dozen young women bustle about, stirring cauldrons of bubbling cherries and plums, and sticking labels on glass jam jars. Ventures like this are one of the rare spaces where women are still able to gain skills and employment in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

It is run by Najia, a 47-year-old Afghan entrepreneur and mother of nine children who was married at the age of 14.

If the authorities hadn't barred girls and young women from secondary schools and universities, many of the women in this workshop, including Naija's daughters, would be studying for a different kind of future.

Image caption, Jam-making workshops are one of vanishingly few ways women can still learn and make money