A video that has gone viral on social media of men in Afghanistan storming Kabul airport in an effort to flee the country has left me wondering on just how helpless the women and children are in times of conflict and just how the burden of raising children falls squarely on them.

The airport in the capital was reportedly the only official route out of the country after the Taliban took control of all the major border crossings and there was no single woman on child onsight in the chaotic airport where some men can even be seen jumping on the wings of a plane that was on the runway.

The Taliban, an Islamist movement and military organization in Afghanistan, that ran the country 20 years ago has now taken over the government following the withdrawal of US troops.

During its rule before US troops and other allies overruled them in 2001, the Taliban had imposed various extreme restrictions and were also perpetrating violence on women in the name of punishment.

Women in Afghanistan were not allowed to work when the Taliban ruled the country and also outlawed education for girls. The Women were also not to ever expense their faces and were forced to wear the burqa at all times. (A burqa is a long, loose garment covering the whole body from head to feet, worn in public by women in many Muslim countries)

The Taliban had also banned women in Afghanistan from getting medical services from male doctors unless accompanied by a male chaperone, which left women marginalized when in access to healthcare.

Women in Afghanistan were also banned from being photographed or their pictures appearing in newspapers, books and they were not also allowed to stand at their balconies so that they do not “tempt men” and they were not to walk on the streets alone except when in the company of a close male relative.

Those who were caught on the offence were publicly lashed and even executed.

The Economist reports that just days after the takeover, the Taliban have already stopped women from working in other provinces and ordered families to hand over their daughters to be “married” to fighters.