9 Historic Photos Of Afghan Women Standing Up To The Taliban

9 Historic Photos Of Afghan Women Standing Up To The Taliban
An Afghan woman shows her inked finger after voting at a polling station in the northwestern city of Herat on April 5, 2014. Afghan voters went to the polls to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, braving Taliban threats in a landmark election held as US-led forces wind down their long intervention in the country. AFP PHOTO/AREF KARIMI (Photo credit should read Aref Karimi/AFP/Getty Images)
An Afghan woman shows her inked finger after voting at a polling station in the northwestern city of Herat on April 5, 2014. Afghan voters went to the polls to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, braving Taliban threats in a landmark election held as US-led forces wind down their long intervention in the country. AFP PHOTO/AREF KARIMI (Photo credit should read Aref Karimi/AFP/Getty Images)

"The people out there are scared as hell of the Taliban," a U.S. Army officer who recently returned from Afghanistan told the Daily Beast. And given the 39 suicide bombings, countless threats of death and mutilation and the murder of an Afghan provincial council candidate just before the elections, they have legitimate reason to be terrified.

However, the imminent danger from the Taliban did not stop the people of Afghanistan from heading to polling stations on Saturday to elect President Hamid Karzai's successor. It's the country's third presidential election since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, and its first time transferring power from one elected leader to another.

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