A young woman running away from her Afghan village and an arranged marriage is comparable to crossing a busy street blindfolded - there is a strong likelihood that she will be killed for bringing shame on her family. Over the last decade about 20 emergency women’s shelters have sprung up. They have cared for and protected several thousand women across Afghanistan from abuse or death at the hands of their relatives. As the shelters have grown, so has the opposition of powerful conservative imams and the Afghan government. They see shelters as Western assaults on Afghan culture. As the Western presence in Afghanistan dwindles this clash of ideas of the place of women means many gains women made after 2001 are at risk. Although the Taliban’s harsh restrictions on women alienated many Afghans, the idea that women must submit to men remains widely held.