As Taliban took over Afghanistan, heartbreaking and shocking videos have surfaced online showing thousands of Afghans jostling to get inside airplanes, desperate to leave the war-torn country. The rush at the Kabul airport and the strong push to get out was one indicator of peoples anxiety about life under the Taliban. Another was a change in the dress code, specifically for women. Though the Taliban has said that it would respect the rights of women, it also asserted that women will have to wear the hijab in public.

On a normal day in Kabul, one could see a significant number of women on the streets dressed in jeans, long tunics and headscarves and burqas. But, not now. The small group of women on the streets were fully covered in hijabs while most of the men were dressed in salwar kameez. Hardly anyone wore jeans and T-shirts, which was a common sight a week ago, VOA reported.

Among the startling visual changes in Afghanistan - Clarissa Ward reporting in the new Taliban dress code https://t.co/x0ZRUmddKJ

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At checkpoints previously staffed by Afghan forces, men with long beards wearing salwar kameez, the long tunic and loose pants that make the local dress, AK-47s dangling at their side, looked inside car windows and asked drivers where they were going, sometimes with a smile and a hand raised to their chest as a gesture of respect, the report said.

While the Taliban promised there would be no violence against anyone, citizens of Kabul are in a panic mode and seem to be treading cautiously. Men with Kalashnikovs roamed the streets of Kabul on foot, in security vehicles and on motorcycles Monday as the insurgents solidified their hold on Afghanistan’s capital. They seemed to have taken over the duties of Afghan police and security forces that were hardly visible anymore.

Under the previous Taliban rule, Afghan women were not allowed to work, study, or be treated by male doctors unless accompanied by a male chaperone. Notably, the militants practiced a version of Sharia law which included stoning for adultery, amputation of limbs for theft, and preventing girls from going to school beyond the age of 12. Those who violated laws faced imprisonment, public flogging, and even execution.

Reports from areas the Taliban have captured indicate that women are already not being allowed out of their homes without a male companion and that some female employees were told their jobs would now be carried out by men. Women in these areas are also being told to wear burkas. People feel that it is a sign that rights won by Afghan women over the 20 years could be reversed, now that the Taliban have come to power.