Bread & Roses

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, following U.S. withdrawal in 2021, brought renewed restrictions to the lives of more than 20 million Afghan women. Overnight, they were barred from enrolling in schools, holding jobs, and participating in basic activities like walking alone in public. But this state of affairs does not mean the country is absent of resistance. Sahra Mani’s film vividly documents the resilience of the women’s rights movement by toggling between the experiences of three women who politically organize against the regime—always at great peril—and other broader responses (many clandestine) to the crackdown on civil liberties: safe houses, escape routes to Pakistan, wide-scale marches. And yet, Mani’s documentary is rich with details of joy, laughter, and day-to-day life experienced by the women it documents, illustrating how life persists even under the harshest of conditions. The interplay between political and personal is central to a deeper understanding of what’s at stake. For capturing a movement still in process and championing women’s rights in Afghanistan, we recognize Bread & Roses with a Peabody Award.