Burqa prices skyrocket in Kabul; women in Kabul fear reprisal

Taliban insurgents entered Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan on Sunday, bringing the Islamist militants close to taking over the country two decades after they were overthrown by a US-led invasion.

The Taliban has declared the war in Afghanistan over after its fighters swept the capital Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. The streets of Kabul were quiet on Monday, but there were scenes of chaos and panic at the international airport as hundreds of Afghans desperate to leave the country flooded the tarmac, Al Jazeera reported.

As city after city falls to the Taliban, women fear that the freedoms won since 2001 will be crushed. They will have to once again wear burqa. It was enforced strictly during the Taliban regime in the late 1990s, and failure to wear one while in public could earn women severe punishments and public lashings from the Taliban's "moral police".

Women will have to pull out burqas of their dusty storerooms and cupboards as they have to live a life under the militants rule. Many have started to buy them again. 

One of buyer said, “Last year these burqas cost AFS 200 [£2]. Now they’re trying to sell them to us for AFS 2,000 to 3,000”. As the fear among women in Kabul has grown, the prices have risen.