Leaders in Afghanistan make laws: Girls can’t go to middle school, high school, or college. In public, they must wear coverings from head to toe. Women aren’t allowed in parks, gyms, and some other public spaces. At first, women couldn’t work alongside men. Now they can’t hold non-government jobs at all.

A group called the Taliban controls Afghanistan. It enforces a strict type of Islamic law called Sharia.

What happens when women can’t do their work?

Things fall apart.

Afghanistan is already deeply troubled. People live in fear. When the Taliban took power in 2021, many hoped to escape the country but could not.

Groups from around the world send help. They supply Afghans with jobs giving assistance to others. Many of these job-holders are women. When these women can’t use their gifts to bless others, everyone pays the price. Many are left without food, medicine, and school. So some foreign organizations stop sending help to Afghanistan. This sends a message: We won’t help if you won’t let women help too!

Still, women in some local organizations try to keep the good work going. They labor in secret. They pay staff with donated money for as long as it lasts.

One worker helps women start businesses and get an education. She wanted to go to the office one last time to collect her laptop. But her director warned her: Don’t try it. Armed Taliban were standing outside the building.

But she is determined to continue helping others, even though she now works from home.

“It is my responsibility to take the hand of women and girls and provide services for them,” she says. “I will work until the end of my life. This is why I am not leaving Afghanistan. If we fail, all women fail.”

Why? All people are made in God’s image, and He has a purpose for every one of us. When we value each person, people can live together well and even thrive.