Kabul streets, without women after Taliban takeover 3:24
Kabul (CNN) -
Kabul's busy street seems almost as if nothing has changed.
People rush past, merchants organizing their colorful wares and police directing traffic.
However, there is a big change: there are almost no women here.
Since the Taliban took over the Afghan capital on Sunday, most of the women have stayed home.
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The Taliban have repeatedly said that women's rights will be protected under their rule, but it is clear that many Afghans are terrified by the prospect of living under the Taliban regime.
Now there are far fewer women venturing out onto the streets, compared to just a few days ago.
Those who defy the outside world tend to dress more conservatively than before, their faces often covered with niqabs or veils.
"They will come for people like me and kill me," says the first woman to hold the position of mayor in a city in Afghanistan
Many of the educated and intrepid women who have spent the last decade building their careers are desperately looking for a way out, worried they may be targeted by the Taliban.
"I'm thinking about my future, my daughters, what will happen to them if they kill me? Two daughters without a mother," one woman told CNN.
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The woman, whom CNN does not name for security reasons, has worked for several international NGOs.
He said he has spent days desperately asking for their help, but none have responded.
"It's not easy ... having more than 10 years of experience working with international [organizations] and none of them helped me," he said.
Fear is omnipresent
For a clothing store in central Kabul, the Taliban takeover has provided a boost for business;
the owner told CNN that he has sold many burqas in the last few days.
Men in front of a clothing store in downtown Kabul.
The store owner told CNN that he has been selling many more burqas in recent days.
The garment covers the body from head to toe, with a mesh panel over the eyes.
It was a mandatory outfit for women when the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s.
The burqa became a much less common image in Kabul over the past two decades, but news that the Taliban are back in charge has led to a surge in sales.
The merchant said his mostly male customers are scared and are buying them for their wives, daughters and other women in their lives because they feel that from now on, wearing a burqa may be the only way to stay safe in streets.
This is the tense reality of life in Kabul now.
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For now, the Taliban insist that life should continue as normal and have called on government workers to return to work.
The group's leaders insist there is no danger to the "property, honor and life" of Afghan citizens, and have told their fighters not to enter people's homes or impound their cars.
However, promises alone are not enough to ease people's concerns.
The heavily armed Taliban fighters patrolling downtown Kabul may not yet be imposing strict rules on people's lives, but the fear that this could change at any moment is pervasive.
CNN's Clarissa Ward and Brent Swails reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. CNN's Ivana Kottasová wrote from London.
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