According to official data Afghanistan is one of the world's poorest countries. It has 23 million inhabitants and only 5% of women can read. But Afghanistan was not always like that, in 1940 there was a vibrant and prosperous land full of opportunities for the future. The modern buildings, technology and education dotting this arid landscape in which women wore pencil skirts, drove cars, buying music and attending college.

Photographs of another happy time have been collected by a Facebook page to testify at that time the tolerance of obscurantism, ignorance and misery that reign today in Afghanistan.

Mohammad Qayoumi, creator of the Facebook page, grew up in Kabul in the 60s and 70s and offers his photographs to sensitize the world population about what happened in Afghanistan. Mohammad writes on his page:

"Half a century ago, Afghan women pursued careers in medicine; Men and women were mixed casually in theaters and college campuses in Kabul; suburban factories producing textiles and other goods series. There was a tradition of law and order, and a government capable of carrying out large national infrastructure projects such as the construction of hydroelectric plants and roads, even with outside help. Ordinary people had a sense of hope, the belief that education could open opportunities for all, the conviction that a bright future lay ahead. Everything has been destroyed by three decades of war, but it was real.

This was Afghanistan"

Afghan women in the 1940s.

Kabul typical fashion of years 50-70.

Record shop in Kabul, 1960.

Afghan vocal group.

Kandahar airport built in the 1960s.

Flight attendants Ariana Afghan Airlines.

Kabul, 1960.

Foreign visitors camping in Band-e Amir, 1970.

Drive through route Afghanistan

Mothers and children playing in a playground in the city.

Mothers and children playing in a playground in the city.

Large women have been disadvantaged in the 1950s and 60s were able to pursue professional careers in such important fields as medicine. They could also have political ideas and were treated like human beings. Today, schools that educate women are targets of violence and the situation has worsened over the last five or six years ago.

Women in the nursery school.

When Afghanistan was in Vogue, December 1969.

TODAY Afghan women.

If today introduce into Google the words "Afghan woman" which gives us the result it is frankly chilling. Afghan women from childhood are victims of political, religious, physical and sexual violence.