Women from Afghanistan have shared their stories of living under Taliban rule for a new exhibition.

Window to the Soul Afghanistan launched on Friday, at Jerwood DanceHouse in Ipswich, and will be displayed for four weeks.

The project team spent the last year creating a secure platform for women still in Afghanistan, and those who had left, to share their stories of life before and after the Taliban

The Taliban, a hardline Islamist group, took control of Afghanistan in 2021 and under its rule women and girls have been subject to strict and oppressive laws.

Nageena and her family fled Afghanistan the day the group took over, which she said was “a very bad day”.

She still has family there and said her female relatives, over the age of 12, were not allowed to attend school due to the Taliban’s ban.

She stressed the importance of education and said it was “not only about what boys and men can do”.

“I miss my country because it is my home, but I can’t go home,” she continued.

She said the exhibition had made her feel brave and that she was capable of anything.

Hannah Aria is a local artist who helped set up the exhibition.

“I started off working with refugees in Ipswich,” she explained.

“As you gain more connections with people, you connect with the stories and then you want to do something positive to help.”

The exhibition makes use of virtual and augmented reality to tell the stories of “people from Afghanistan in an amazing game-like format”, Ms Aria said.

She added the exhibition aimed to apply for more funding to expand it further and tell more stories in the future.

“We want to change the world,” she said.

Rona Panjsheri, from Afghanistan, also worked on the project and said talking about women in Afghanistan made her emotional.

“It’s really sad to talk about them, all negative things, [but] there are some positive things that I am really proud of them [for],” she explained.