Hangry_Squirrel

There are also ways to undermine the system from within or to support those on the front lines without actually being out there.

It can be a matter of using one's connections, of making sure the right things get done without unnecessary delays, of ensuring that other things get misplaced or suffer little accidents, that someone has a getaway car at the right time, that they have a place to stay in another city, that they have money to bribe the right person, and so on.

Or it can be a matter of simply offering one's house as a meeting place, of keeping everyone fed, of packing an emergency bag for them, etc.

Plenty. And they're often extreme versions of otherwise garden-variety denominations or living in places where you wouldn't expect them (like the Dutch "Bible belt").

There are some particularly insidious groups which sank their claws into poor countries, like some Baptist variation which went to Moldova after it gained independence. I was not expecting to find so many fundies there.

Girls don't marry at 16, but 20-ish is not unusual and it's pretty bad because they often do it before they graduate (and then the first baby comes and it's 50/50 if she has the support to finish college). The one good thing is that they have the freedom to choose and that their husbands are boys their age.

I'm confused too. GDPR is the strictest privacy and data protection legislation in the world.

John, there are hundreds (potentially thousands) of young women who have secured places and funding at foreign universities, but they can't apply for student visas or travel anywhere because they don't have passports.

Under these circumstances, which I think are well-known to everyone, a Taliban-issued passport would still be a lifeline for them and, in some cases, for their families. Even an expired passport would be something, but a lot don't have one at all and the situation feels desperate because there's currently no way for them to obtain a travel document.

I don't know what to do (I'm mentoring one of these girls) - it's hard to stay optimistic knowing our efforts may come to nothing if there's no way for her to enter another country.

They are not willingly releasing that information, though. I have no doubt breaches happen, but this is a technical issue rather than a legal one.

The poster specifically referred to "EU laws," which implied that EU laws somehow do not protect privacy.