Inside a posh shopping mall in Kabul, a quiet gender revolution is under way. Compared to other movie theaters in Kabul, the cinema inside, the Galaxy Family Miniplex, looks tidy and modern. But the biggest difference is the audience.

“Here you see women coming in often without a mahram [an unmarriageable family member, which for women can also be an escort] and you feel free,” says 29-year-old Rohina Haroon. The Galaxy Family Miniplex is Afghanistan’s first cinema for women; Haroon has been there four times.

For the past 15 years, cinemas have been almost exclusively men’s territory in Afghanistan, considered off-limits and inappropriate for women…

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