By Richard Lacayo
In the streets of kabul, you can see something these days that has not been glimpsed there for almost five years – women's faces. Now that the Taliban has fled the city, a few brave women have shed the burka – the head-to-toe garment, to Western eyes a kind of body bag for the living, made mandatory by the defeated religious leadership. Men sometimes look in astonishment at these faces, as if they were comets or solar eclipses. So do other women. From the moment in 1996 that the Taliban took power, it sought to make women not just obedient but nonexistent. Not just submissive but invisible. For five years, it almost succeeded. The Taliban's ongoing collapse guarantees at least some improvement in the lives of Afghan women. They are emerging from the houses that they once could not leave except in the company of a male relative. Some are returning to the jobs they had to give up when the Taliban barred them from all employment except for a small number of health-care jobs dedicated to women. Even more remarkable, Kabul's sole television station now features a woman announcer. In a country where people were required to paint their windows black so that passersby could not see the face of any woman who might be at home, the announcer appears on screen without a veil. Afghan society is tribal and conservative. Except for a small minority of educated professionals in Kabul, women have long been relegated to a subservient role. In rural areas of northern Afghanistan that are under the control of the Northern Alliance, the burka is still universal, though no law requires it. Even in Kabul, where Western-style skirts were not uncommon before the Taliban, many women say the burka is the least of their concerns. On the streets, you would never know that these silent, shapeless forms, encased in these shrouds, have any views at all. But outside the earshot of men, the women are fierce, alive and opinionated. And when they shed their burkas, they turn out to be wearing brightly colored dresses. All three say they would prefer not to wear a burka or even a head scarf but fear they would be harassed. If the future is uncertain, the recent past is an all-to-well-substantiated fact. The Taliban made Afghanistan a laboratory for the systematic oppression of women. What it did will haunt that nation and the world for years to come. To westerners, the most visible symbol of the Taliban’s oppressive regime was the order that placed all women under the burka. Its long-standing place in Afghan culture is complicated. Many rural women, especially, claim to wear it willingly, at least when they speak in the presence of their husbands. But nearly any educated woman you speak to loathes the burka. So do many less educated ones – if you can question them where men cannot hear. The heavy cloth covering can induce panic, claustrophobia and headaches. It’s a psychological hobbling of women that is akin to Chinese foot binding.
Taliban Rules Banned or declared "unclean" by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice:
FOR EVERYONE • Pork, pig oil and lobster • Movies and photographs • VCRs,TVs and satellite dishes • Computers and the Internet • Kite flying and chess playing • Pool tables and firecrackers • Pet pigeons and sewing catalogs • Clapping at sporting events • Singing and dancing • "Anything that propagates sex and is full of music"
FOR WOMEN • Speaking or laughing loudly • Riding bicycles or motorcycles • Showing their ankles • Wearing shoes that click or makeup • Leaving home unaccompanied by a close male relative • Attending school • Speaking to men who are not close relatives • Working (except for a few doctors and nurses)
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