For Nurzia Rashid and her husband Rahatul Qalandari, the fear of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan is overshadowed by more pressing concerns - where to find the next meal for their six children.
Rashid and Kalandri, who worked as a nanny and a security guard in government ministries in the capital Kabul before the Taliban retook power last year, are now unemployed. The family cuts back on meals, sells jewelry and depends on handouts from charities and neighbors.
"It doesn't matter to me whether the return of the Taliban is a good thing or a bad thing," said Rashid, who does not support the Islamist group's highly conservative worldview. "What matters is that we are hungry."
Life has changed significantly for Afghanistan's 40 million people since the withdrawal of NATO troops and the victory of a Sunni paramilitary organization a year ago, accompanied by a dramatic economic collapse that has left many Afghan families poorer and hungrier.
"I am very worried about the upcoming winter," said Xiao-Wei Li, deputy director of the UN World Food Program for Afghanistan. The country urgently needs aid in the form of food, as well as a broader investment program, she added: "The economy needs to breathe... so that (Afghans) are not in the same position they are in now."
The return of the Taliban has been experienced differently across different regions, ethnicities and genders. For some, the relative peace after 20 years of Islamist insurgency is a welcome opportunity to rebuild their lives. Others live in fear of persecution or have lost hard-won freedoms, such as girls' right to education.
The Taliban have ruled Afghanistan since the 1990s, before a US-led coalition invaded and ousted the regime in 2001, triggering their long campaign to regain power.
Although the fall of the Western-backed government last year reduced the livelihoods of people like Rashid and Qalandari overnight, some Afghans welcomed the Taliban's crackdown on corruption.
The fighting forced Haji Hamayon to flee his village in central Wardak province more than a decade ago, and move to the outskirts of Kabul. The 56-year-old trader said the Taliban had tackled the problem of bribery, which dominated his consumer goods import business.
Like many Taliban, he belongs to the large Pashtun ethnic group, and shares elements of Islamist views. His four wives and their daughters do not work and cover their faces in public.
"I'm so happy I don't care if I eat or not," he said. "I love the Taliban, because all the oppressors, warlords, and murderers are gone."
After the Taliban venture, Western powers tried to isolate the regime by imposing sanctions, confiscating Afghanistan's nine billion dollars in foreign reserves and cutting off financial aid that made up 75 percent of the previous government's budget.
Critics argue that this has only hurt ordinary Afghans, while doing little harm to the ruling Taliban.
The UN Development Program estimates that gross domestic product fell by 20 percent in 2021 and will decrease by an additional five percent this year. It is also estimated that major food insecurities will affect around 20 million people.
As poverty levels rise, the Taliban are determined to reshape Afghan society according to strict interpretations of Islamic law, imposing draconian restrictions, ordering women to cover their faces and banning girls from going to school.
The regime was disastrous for Katera (35) and her 16-year-old daughter Hasanat. Katera lost her job as a teacher at a school in Kabul, and Hasanat hasn't been in a classroom since last August.
"Before, Hasanat was sociable, she went out a lot and was very open. Now she stays at home, has lost weight and has headaches," Katera said.
"It's okay for us to wear the niqab (veil that covers the face). But they must allow us to go back to schools and offices.”
The Taliban have said several times since last August that they plan to reopen the girls' primary school, as well as preparing a new curriculum. However, the delay has many fearing a repeat of the 1990s policy of systematically banning teenage girls from education.
Human rights activist groups accuse the regime of reviving the brutality that characterized their rebellion and previous rule.
Although the Taliban announced an amnesty last year for members of the previous government and armed forces, international monitoring records many violations.
A UN report last month said the Taliban carried out at least 160 extrajudicial killings, nearly 200 arbitrary arrests and tortured dozens of former military and government officials between last August and June.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, dismissed the accusations as propaganda. Anyone who "kills or arrests arbitrarily... will face Sharia law," he wrote on Twitter.
About 700 civilians were killed and 1400 wounded in terrorist attacks between August and June, according to UN data. The attacks mostly target the Hazara Shia ethnic minority, and have been attributed to a local affiliate of Isis, the Taliban's Islamist rivals.
The Taliban, who previously persecuted Shia Muslims as heretics, say it is now their duty to protect minorities, although many Hazara members distrust the group.
"Discrimination existed under the previous regime, but now it is more open," said a 25-year-old Hazara member in Kabul.
For most Afghans, making ends meet remains the biggest challenge. Rajab Ali Josefi, a 35-year-old shop owner in Kabul, said sales of basic groceries had halved, forcing him to go into debt to keep paying the rent.
"Business is only getting worse," he said. "People who used to buy a bag full of something will now buy half of it."
While humanitarian aid has helped prevent mass starvation, aid agencies fear that vulnerable Afghans will not be able to withstand additional economic shocks.
"You can spend all day looking, but there won't be any work," Kalandari said. "Everything has collapsed and now we are only asking for bread."
Translation: M. Corović
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