“Bread and Roses”: This moving Apple TV+ documentary about the resistance of Afghan women makes it clear why women’s rights are anything but self-evident

The sad truth: There is currently no shortage of world crises. It is therefore no wonder that the cruel fate of Afghan women has been increasingly forgotten in recent years after the Taliban came to power in 2021. All the more important is the new documentary “Bread and Roses” produced by Hollywood star Jennifer Lawrence (seen on Apple TV+ from November 22nd), which reminds us with moving intensity that progress in terms of women's rights and equality cannot be relied upon.

She captures the lives of modern Afghan women who have evolved more and more over the last 20 yearsand freedoms and helped shape the future of the country as lawyers, poets and doctors. Until the Islamist terrorist group Taliban invaded Kabul on August 15, 2021. This is exactly where the documentation and the end of all women's rights in Afghanistan begins.

The film follows three courageous protagonists who use all means possible to organize resistance against the terrorist group. With recordings that were secretly filmed and that get under your skin. Rawat the demonstrations, nightly patrols accompanied by fear and terror and arguments with their own family. But these fearless women don't give up, writing their protest in the snow, spraying it on house walls and painting it on the palms of their hands.

The current situation for women in Afghanistan could hardly be more desperate: Girls are no longer allowed to go to school from the 5th grade onwards, and women are not allowed to study or work. And they are only allowed to leave their own house in an emergency - and then only with a burqa, i.e. completely veiled. The latest ban, just issued by the fundamentalist Taliban: women are no longer even allowed to hear the voices of other women (who are not part of the family). This even applies to prayers!

That sounds absurd, but women are systematically isolated, oppressed and deprived of any hope. Every female resistance, no matter how small, is punished cruelly. Often with torture or even the death penalty. Draconian measures that make women in Afghanistan prisoners in their own homes. Without perspective, without hope, without support. The suicide rate in Afghanistan has risen dramatically.

“I was so devastated by this merciless violence against women, I wanted to help somehow,” remembers Hollywood star Jennifer Lawrence. So the US actress and her production company “Excellent Cadavar” went looking for an Afghan filmmaker and discovered Sahra Mani. The Afghan director was at a film festival in Europe when the Taliban invaded Kabul. Since then she has lived in exile. With the help of a camera team on site and very personal video recordings of the three protagonists, the director managed to create a sobering inventory of cruel injustice against women.

The focus is on: Zahra Mohammadi, 33, a newly married dentist whose practice quickly turns into a meeting place for other activists. Taranom Seyedi, 39, a women's rights activist forced into exile in neighboring Pakistan. And Sharifa Movahidzadeh, 31, a government worker who is now confined to her house. Malala Yousafzai is also on board as a producer. The Nobel Peace Prize winner and activist experienced the brutal oppression of the Pakistani Taliban first hand. She grew up in a region of Pakistan where the terrorist organization made life hell for women and girls and started campaigning for the right to education for women with a blog at the age of eleven. That was her downfall: she narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in 2012 and survived being shot in the head.

Many scenes in “Bread and Roses” are difficult to endure, but the solidarity among the women is also movingly encouraging. And an important appeal to all of us to stand up for women's rights and equality at every opportunity. Women's rights must be strengthened worldwide because, unfortunately, they are far from being a given. And despite all the progress, they are constantly threatened by patriarchal power structures. Even in democratic countries! Just think of the United States, where the right to abortion was repealed in 2022 after almost 50 years. We must never forget: injustice against women has devastating consequences. For all of us. No matter where!