Malala Yousafzai and Jennifer Lawrence tell the BBC about their new documentary Bread & Roses, which highlights the stories and voices of Afghan women resisting the Taliban.

It’s being called “gender apartheid” by the UN. In August 2021, the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan. A generation of women who had new opportunities to work, study and hold public office under the previous government, found their lives overturned. Girls are refused formal secondary and university education, women are banned from most work sectors, and from using parks and gyms. Beauty salons have been closed. Now female voices are even forbidden to be heard in public. The Taliban has said the new laws are accepted in Afghan society, and in accordance with Islamic Sharia law.

Bread & Roses is a documentary filmed from within Afghanistan by women who have resisted these restrictions on their lives. “I am taking a video, do not call me,” Dr Zahra Mohammadi tells a caller in the film, as she runs downstairs to her workplace.

Dr Mohammadi is a young dentist who celebrated her engagement just before the Taliban reached Kabul, a few weeks before the video is taken. She expresses hope to the audience that she can still work under the new government. “Up until now the Taliban have not bothered doctors, although they’ve just ordered me to remove my name upon the sign,” she tells the camera.