KABUL — The spacious ballroom glittered with lights. Young women in chiffon and satin gowns sashayed among the tables or twirled slowly on the dance floor to tapes of rhythmic music. Amid “oohs” and “aahs,” the bride and groom were lowered from the ceiling in a golden cable car and escorted to a lotus-shaped throne. Tiny drones whirred in the air, recording every moment.

Outside the high-tech fairy-tale setting, the Afghan capital remained firmly in the grip of a strict religious regime that has barred teenage girls from school, prohibited women from traveling without a male guardian, required them to wear shapeless Islamic robes in public and most recently banned them from all universities.

But on this chilly December evening, in the ladies’ hall of the newly opened White Palace wedding hotel, several hundred Cinderellas were free to pirouette, compare hairdos and briefly leave behind the restrictions of Taliban rule that had disrupted their plans for college or careers, and left them brooding at home.

“Outside everything is terrible for us. We cannot imagine the future,” said Halima, 20, who finished high school early last year but has been idle since. Clad in a bouffant pink gown, she greeted other guests and giggled with friends. “Here it’s like a sanctuary where we feel safe,” she said. “We can forget our worries and enjoy ourselves for one night.”

Read more: https:www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/22/afghanistan-kabul-weddings-taliban/