In 2021, the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. Under their harsh rule, women have seen their rights obliterated, with girls banned from attending high school, and women no longer allowed to pursue higher education, effectively ending their formal schooling beyond elementary levels.

They have been barred, too, from working in most sectors, and are no longer allowed to appear in public without a male chaperone (mahram). A series of draconian ‘vice and virtue laws’ published earlier this year prohibit women from showing their faces outside their homes – and even their voices are considered awrah (meaning ‘that which must be covered’), so they are not allowed to speak or be heard in public, even by other women. The rates of child marriage have also increased.

Bread & Roses is a powerful documentary film directed by Sahra Mani and produced by Malala Yousafzai and Jennifer Lawrence, which attempts to allow these women to regain their voices.

Watch the trailer for Bread & Roses below:

Here’s everything you need to know.

What is Bread & Roses about?

All about the powerful resistance of Afghan women against the Taliban, the acclaimed Cannes Film Festival selection and Cannes Golden Eye makes for quietly devastating viewing.

“Bread & Roses offers a powerful window into the seismic impact that the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 2021 had on women’s rights and livelihoods,” reads the official synopsis.

“The film follows three women in real time as they fight to recover their autonomy. Mani captures the spirit and resilience of Afghan women through a raw depiction of their harrowing plight.”

What are people saying about Bread & Roses?

“Closing girls’ schools in Afghanistan is not just a matter of feminist concern; rather, it is a matter of international security,” says Mani of the project.

“The Taliban recognises that the children of educated mothers are difficult to indoctrinate and are less susceptible to becoming their future soldiers. Ensuring that girls’ schools remain open in Afghanistan is crucial for the preservation and safety of our entire world.”

Lawrence, meanwhile, tells Variety: “We felt helpless and frustrated with how to get these stories off of the news cycle and into people’s psyches. To help people be galvanised and care about the plight of these women.”

And, as Yousafzai puts it to The Guardian, the film depicts “a reality that breaks your heart”.

“Why is there silence? Why is there inaction? Activists and storytellers cannot spend too much time thinking about it,” she says, noting that the ultimate obligation lies with the general public.

“I think it’s the job of the people to hold their leaders to account and put more pressure on them. So I hope that people will begin to question their representatives and ask them what they have been doing. What do they mean when they say they’re committed to gender equality – those nice fancy words – when they don’t take any action to protect women’s rights and girls’ education in Afghanistan?”

When and where can we watch Bread & Roses?

Bread & Roses is available to stream via Apple TV+ on Friday 22 November.

Images: Apple TV+