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Ten years
since Taleban took Kabul
Now Afghan women fear their
return
Dan Isaacs, Kabul, 27 September 2006
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It is 10 years to the day since
the Taleban fought their way into the Afghan capital Kabul.
One of their first acts on seizing
power was to introduce their strict interpretation of Islam.
This included the banning of women
from work and education, and the prohibition of all music and television.
Along with these harsh regulations
came strict Islamic punishments, which included stoning to death and
amputations.
The Taleban were forced out of
power in 2001 but today the country is once again facing a resurgence of Taleban
militancy.
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Children are enjoying everyday pleasures
denied under the Taleban
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Music banned
Back in 1996 the world changed
beyond all recognition for many Afghans.
Women in particular suffered from
the sweeping changes brought by the Taleban.
Many tens of thousands lost their
jobs, girls' schools were closed and women were forbidden from appearing in
public unless covered from head to foot in the all-encompassing burkha.
Everyday pleasures were banned
with a zeal never before witnessed in the modern Islamic world.
The Taleban's Afghanistan was
without music, television or images of any kind.
Even the flying of kites - a
hugely popular pastime among Afghan children - was considered frivolous and
un-Islamic.
Kabul in 2006 is all very, very
different. Muslim traditions are of course still observed.
This is the month of Ramadan - a
time for fasting and devotional prayer.
But what is different now, an
Afghan friend told me, is that if you choose not to fast, you will not be
punished.
The religious police are no longer
watching your every move.
Music - not just traditional
Afghan melodies, but the harsh beats of techno and rap - now blare out of radios
across the city.
Resurgent Taleban
But this new cosmopolitan
lifestyle is only a very limited snapshot of Afghanistan.
Conflict and grinding poverty
still hold back many of the changes enjoyed by the few in the more affluent
cities.
And of course the Taleban are once
again emerging as a militant and political force in the southern provinces.
They do have some support - not
least amongst those who see foreign forces in the country as just the latest
wave of colonial aggressors.
But in Kabul I found only fear -
fear that the progress made in the five years since the Taleban fled the city
could be under threat.
Everyone from the young female
students now studying hard on the campus of Kabul University to the migrant
labourers looking for work in Kabul's thriving construction industry share that
fear.
The Taleban's era was a dark age
and not one they ever wish to see return. |
