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Last month's massive bombings in the capital, Kabul, have underscored the difficulties the Afghanistan government has been having recently in containing a resurgent Taliban insurgency backed by a growing ISIL presence.
The activities of the latter, with whom the Taliban currently seem to have a self-serving truce, are particularly worrisome because as Islamic State suffers military reverses in Syria and Iraq, it is looking to establish safer havens elsewhere and Afghanistan seems to fit the bill.
Some of the more remote parts of the country, such as its most northerly provinces, have been attracting especial attention, not least because from there ISIL (or Daesh as it known) are believed to want to expand their influence into Central Asia and Russia.
It's understandable then that the Afghanistan authorities would welcome any initiative by the general population in those areas to help respond to the threat, such as joining local militias and providing help and support to the local security forces.
But in such a conservative country few would have expected that the most enthusiastic new recruits would be women.
Yet that is exactly what seems to be happening in Jowzjan Province, which sits on the border between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, where several hundred local women have decided to take up arms against the insurgents.
Filmmaker Najibullah Quraishi, keen to find out why they had decided to fight and what it meant for their families, their communities and the country at large, gained unique access to a group of women at Darzab and Sheberghan districts who were starting weapons training with the Afghanistan police prior to being deployed in the field.
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The activities of the latter, with whom the Taliban currently seem to have a self-serving truce, are particularly worrisome because as Islamic State suffers military reverses in Syria and Iraq, it is looking to establish safer havens elsewhere and Afghanistan seems to fit the bill.
Some of the more remote parts of the country, such as its most northerly provinces, have been attracting especial attention, not least because from there ISIL (or Daesh as it known) are believed to want to expand their influence into Central Asia and Russia.
It's understandable then that the Afghanistan authorities would welcome any initiative by the general population in those areas to help respond to the threat, such as joining local militias and providing help and support to the local security forces.
But in such a conservative country few would have expected that the most enthusiastic new recruits would be women.
Yet that is exactly what seems to be happening in Jowzjan Province, which sits on the border between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, where several hundred local women have decided to take up arms against the insurgents.
Filmmaker Najibullah Quraishi, keen to find out why they had decided to fight and what it meant for their families, their communities and the country at large, gained unique access to a group of women at Darzab and Sheberghan districts who were starting weapons training with the Afghanistan police prior to being deployed in the field.
- Subscribe to our channel: aje.io/AJSubscribe
- Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/AJEnglish
- Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aljazeera
- Check our website: www.aljazeera.com/