These Photos Provide A Glimmer Of Hope For Afghanistan's Future

Large numbers of Afghans turned out for a historic election on Saturday, despite terrible weather and continued threats of violence from the Taliban, CNN reports.

While it's an achievement in itself to get people to push past fear to determine their country's future - 75% said they wanted to vote despite the threats - the reason to be hopeful is in seeing so many women at the polls.

Afghanistan in the past century was actually quite liberal on womens' rights. Not long after the U.S. allowed women to vote in 1920, Afghan women received that same right. And in 1960, the Afghan constitution provided for equality for women, according to the U.S. State Department.

But it was the rise of the Taliban in the nineties that changed all that. While much of Afghanistan was oppressed under strict religious law and denied human rights, the Taliban's treatment of women was especially abhorrent.

So to see photos of women lined up to vote in large numbers - hopeful to have a say in their country's direction - is truly inspiring, and sheds a glimmer of hope that Afghanistan's future may be to embrace its past freedom, long before it was overtaken by Taliban oppression.

The country's future is far from certain, of course, but today's election can at least provide some hope.