KABUL, Afghanistan - Shahgol Shah was just 11 when her family married her to a man she didn't choose. She never went to school, and spent her life raising seven children.

Today, Shah, who is 50, still obeys an Afghan custom that forbids women to leave home without a male relative. In public, she wears a burka, the long cloak covering her entire body worn by some Muslims for modesty. Her face is hidden by a shawl. "That's our tradition," Shah says.

Her 26-year-old daughter, Ghazalan Koofi, lives a life her mother could never have imagined. She leaves home alone every day, working for the government and attending university at night. She speaks fluent English and has never worn a burka. She dresses stylishly but modestly. Her wavy black hair peeks out from under a head scarf.

Koofi demands the respect of her male co-workers. She treasures her "love marriage" with the husband she chose for herself. Most Afghan marriages are arranged by the families of the bride and groom, who often haven't met before the wedding. Her husband, Shoaib Azizi, calls his wife "a very brave woman." He helps with housework and caring for their child, something that some male friends consider shameful.

A Dangerous Time

Koofi was a teenager when the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2011. The U.S. went to war against Afghanistan because the Taliban government gave shelter to Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks against the United States. The Taliban did not allow women to attend school. They forced women to wear the burka in public and forbade them from going outside their homes without a male relative. Women in Afghanistan gained many freedoms after the Taliban were removed from power.

But U.S. combat troops are leaving Afghanistan next year. And Koofi and other Afghan women worry that the Taliban will take over. Their new freedoms could disappear.

"We are entering a very dangerous period for women," says Koofi. "I'm very worried that we will return to those terrible days when the only place for a woman was in the home, doing housework and serving the men."

Shukriya Matin also became an adult in a world of new freedoms.

Matin, 26, was in grade school when her family ran from the Taliban in 1996. She was beaten for not properly covering her hair in public. For six years, she was a low-paid child carpet weaver in neighboring Pakistan.

She returned to Kabul and earned a high school degree. Now she directs a program at a hospital, but she fears for the future.

Fear A Taliban Return

"Only God knows what will happen to women after 2014," she says. Her 3-year-old daughter plays nearby on the floor.

The story of Afghanistan is the story of Matin's family.

Her mother, Zahra Matin, 52, was engaged at 9 and married at 13. She never learned to read. Zahra Matin dreams that her granddaughter will attend college.

But she worries the Taliban will come back and destroy their dreams.

The freedoms Afghan women have gained since 2001 are threatened. A 2009 law banned violence against women, but it is often ignored. An Afghan human rights official wants to get rid of it.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission reported that violent crimes against women reached record levels last year.

Afghanistan is still a deeply traditional Islamic country. Village girls as young as 9 or 10 are forced by their families to marry older men. Some girls who flee arranged marriages are beaten and sometimes killed by their families.

Freedoms May Be Lost

There have been gains since the overthrow of the Taliban. Women now have the right to vote. They serve in parliament, which makes the country's laws, as well as in the army and the police. There are 150 female judges.

Under the Taliban, the only education for girls was in home schools, which were forbidden. Today, 3 million girls attend school. But that's still only 40 out of every 100 school-age girls.

In the last six months, four Afghan policewomen have been killed. Female government officials are often threatened or killed.

"The situation for women is very fragile," says Fawzia Koofi, Ghazalan Koofi's aunt. Fawzia Koofi is a parliament member who taught at an underground school for girls when the Taliban ran the country. She has been threatened with death. Yet, she intends to run for president in 2018.

She says, "Our gains could easily be reversed. And we'd have to start from scratch for the simple right to work outside the home or go to school."