SO IT BEGINS

Taliban Fighters Tell CNN Reporter to ‘Stand to the Side’ Because She’s a Woman

Clarissa Ward said it was obvious her presence was creating tension among the fighters.

Clarissa Ward has spent years reporting from the frontline in Afghanistan, but her job became much more dangerous overnight. CNN’s chief international correspondent filed a report from Kabul a day after it was seized by the Taliban and the group made it clear that she was not considered as an equal. Ward, who was wearing a chador in line with the new expectations on women under Taliban rule, approached a gang of fighters outside the presidential palace. “The welcoming spirit only extends so far and my presence soon creates tension,” she says, as the fighters look at her with suspicion. The footage then cuts and Ward says: “They just told me to stand to the side because I’m a woman.” Later in the report, Ward says there are “far fewer” women on the streets than normal, adding: “The women that you do see... tend to be dressed more conservatively than they were when they were walking down the streets of Kabul yesterday... Obviously I am dressed in a very different way to how I would normally dress to walk down the streets of Kabul.”