Now that the US has signed a deal with the Taliban to eventually leave Afghanistan, it will soon be up to Afghans on both sides of the conflict to decide what peace will look like. The stakes are high. The big question for many and particularly those who remember the religiously repressive Taliban rule that ended with the US invasion in 2001 is whether the newly emboldened militants have changed their ideology. Women, especially in the cities, worry that their rights will be bargained away. The Taliban say they have changed. Girls will be allowed to go to school, and women to work. Women can be judges but not the chief justice; they can participate in politics but not be president, they say. The Taliban, however, will likely not back down on segregation of the sexes, said Hakim Mujahed, the Taliban's representative at the United Nations during their five-year rule.

They will not accept co-education nor will they accept women and men working together, he said. They also say hijab, or a head covering, will be a must, though they won't insist on the all-enveloping burqa, according to Mujahed. The burqa predated the Taliban by decades, particularly in rural Afghanistan, but became a symbol of their repression of women during their rule. It is still worn in much of rural Afghanistan and is seen even in the capital of Kabul. Certainly they are not in favor of co-education. They are not in favor of co-working, said Mujahed who quietly returned to Kabul after the Taliban were ousted in 2001 and eventually joined a government peace committee tasked with making peace with the Taliban.