From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban – a fundamentalist political movement – controlled Afghanistan, and imposed an extremely strict form of sharia (Islamic law) on the country. Ironically, the word Taliban means “scholars.” Their ideology is based on Deobandi fundamentalism, mixed with Pashtun social and cultural customs. The movement began in the early 1990s, but really gained steam when it captured the city of Kandahar in 1994. Afghans were sick of the corrupt and despotic Mujahideen warlords, and originally embraced the Taliban as reformers. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was established in 1996 with Kandahar as its capital. It controlled most of the country until the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks.

They used starvation as a political tool, denying emergency food supplies to 160,000 civilians. They closed people up in containers and let them suffocate. They used a scorched-earth policy against political foes, burning thousands of acres of cropland. But more than anything, they were oppressive of women. Time magazine reported that “the Taliban often argued that the restrictions they placed on women were actually a way of revering and protecting the opposite sex.” (February 10, 2002) Most of the world, including most mainstream Muslims, hotly disagreed.

Human Trafficking. Non-Pashtun women – especially from the Tajik, Uzbek, and Hazara ethnic groups – were targeted for sale as slaves. In 1999 in the Shomali Plains, more than 600 women were abducted and trucked to serve soldiers in Al-Qaeda training camps or to Pakistan, where they were sold to private households or brothels as sex slaves. A Taliban commander named Nurulidah disapproved of this practice and said that he and his men freed numerous women who were being held for sale.

Systematic Oppression of Women. In 1998, Physicians for Human Rights wrote, “No other regime in the world has methodically and violently forced half of its population into house arrest.”
Women were expected to be unseen, unheard – even unsmelled! Some of the restrictions placed on women include:

• Women must wear a burqa (a long robe covering from head to foot, with a screen before the eyes so they could see) whenever they are outside the home. A woman not so covered is subject to a public whipping.
• Women can be whipped in public if their ankles are not covered.
• A woman may not be treated by a male doctor.
• The use of cosmetics is strictly prohibited. (Women wearing nail polish had their fingers cut off.)
• No woman is allowed outside the home for any reason unless accompanied by a mahram (close male relative such as a father, husband, or brother), Women outside the home alone are subject to a public whipping.
• Girls are not allowed to go to school. Many girls’ schools were burned down; others were converted into religious seminaries. The rationale is, girls do not need an education to satisfy their husbands’ sexual needs, bear and raise children, or do household work. Furthermore, educating women is dangerous because it distorts their mentality and makes them question religious authority.
• Women are not allowed to work outside the home. They made an exception for a few female nurses and doctors who were allowed to work in restricted areas of a few hospitals (since women and girls could not be treated by male doctors).
• Women are not allowed to deal with male shopkeepers; they must deal via the mahram who accompanies them everywhere.
• If a woman is accused of having sex outside marriage – whether adultery or extra-marital fornication – she is liable to be publicly stoned to death. Generally, an accusation is considered sufficient proof of guilt.
• Women are not permitted to go onto balconies of their own apartment or houses.
• Windows must be painted black so that women inside are not visible to outsiders.
• Women are not allowed to touch or talk to males other than their close relatives.
• Women are not allowed to laugh or speak loudly in public. No one except family should ever hear a woman’s voice.
• Women must wear shoes that make no sound whatsoever when they walk.
• No woman may ride in a taxi unless she is accompanied by a mahram.
• Pictures of women may not be displayed in shops or houses, and may not be printed in magazines or newspapers.
• Male tailors may not sew women’s clothes – and most especially, take women’s measurements.
• Women may not wear brightly colored (“sexually attracting”) clothing.
• Women may not play sports or even enter a sports club or gym.
• Women may not wash clothes in public places such as next to rivers.
• No place can have the word “woman” or “women.” A “woman’s garden” should be called a “spring garden” instead.
• Women may not go to public baths.
• Women may not be heard on the radio or seen on television.
• Women may not attend public gatherings of any kind.
• Women may not ride bicycles or motorcycles, even if accompanied by a mahram, since they would need to assume an “obscene” posture.
• Women may not attend festivities such as the Eid or any recreational gathering.
• Women may not travel on the same bus as men. “Women only” buses are occasionally available.
• No woman may be photographed.
• Women are not allowed to wear flare-legged pants, even if completely concealed under a burqa.
• Ironically, the Taliban have outlawed caging animals and birds; however, imprisoning women within the four walls of their home is considered “protecting” them.

A nine-member High Court of the Islamic State of Afghanistan issued an order as follows:
 
A denier of the veil is an infidel and an unveiled woman is lewd. Conditions for wearing the veil –

• It must cover the entire body
• Women’s clothes must not be thin
• Women’s clothes may not be colorful and decorated.
• Women’s clothes must not be tight-fitting and narrow to prevent tempting limbs from being noticed. The veil must not be thin.
• Women must not perfume themselves. If a perfumed woman passes by a crowd of men, she is considered to be an adulteress.
• Women’s clothes must not resemble men’s clothes.

 
In addition:

• Women must not perfume themselves.
• Women must not wear adorning clothes.
• Women must not wear thin clothes.
• Women must not wear narrow and tight clothes.
• Women must cover their entire bodies.
• Women’s clothes must not resemble men’s clothes.
• Muslim women’s clothes must not resemble non-Muslim women’s clothes.
• Women’s footwear must not produce any sound.
• Women’s garments must not make any noise.
• Women may not walk in the middle of streets.
• Women may not go out of their houses without their husbands’ permission.
• Women must not talk to strange men.
• If it is necessary for women to talk, they must do so in a low voice and without laughter.
• Women must not look at strangers.
• Women may not mix with strangers.

 
In addition, all Afghans under the Taliban are subject to further restrictions:

• No one is allowed to listen to music.
• No one is allowed to listen to the radio, or watch television or videos.
• Labor Day (May 1st) has been banned because it is considered a Communist holiday.
• Everybody with a non-Islamic (i.e., Arab) name must change it to a proper Islamic name.
• The traditional Afghan New Year’s Day (March 21, Nowroz) is banned as being un-Islamic.
• Men must not shave their beards – mostly to prove that they are not women.
• Men must wear “Islamic” clothing and cover their heads with turbans or hats.
• Men should attend prayers in mosques five times daily.
• Kite-flying is banned as being “un-Islamic.”
• Afghan boys must cut their hair.
• Boys must wear turbans in school.
• Anyone carrying “objectionable” literature will be executed.
• Anyone who converts from Islam to another religion will be executed.
• Non-Muslim minorities must wear distinctive badges to identify them.
• Use of the Internet is banned not only for Afghans but also for foreigners.

 
Now remember, ladies, all this is for your “protection.”

Female Genital Mutilation (FMG), also known as female circumcision or castration, is the practice of surgically removing all or most of the female genitalia, under the theory that if a woman doesn’t experience sexual pleasure, she will be less likely to be unfaithful. The procedure predates Islam, but is widely accepted in the Muslim world as well as areas located immediately adjacent to it.
It is frequently referred to as “beautification,” and in countries where the practice prevails, men are usually unwilling to marry a girl who has not been subjected to it. Except for wealthy families who take their daughters to doctors, the procedure is normally carried out before a girl reaches puberty by untrained village women (sometimes midwives) who use any knife at their disposal and operate in unsanitary conditions. Frequent medical problems result: infection, cysts, high fever, severe pain, excessive bleeding, damaging the urinary tract – even death. It also often results in painful intercourse.
Three reasons are given for the procedure: so the girl won’t “run after men,” cleanliness, and the belief that if a baby’s head touches the clitoris during delivery, the baby will die.
There is no mention of it in the Koran, but a hadith (an extra-Koranic text considered authoritative) states, “A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet said to her, ‘Do not cut severely, as that is better for the woman and more desirable for a husband.’”
Because of this hadith, some Islamic scholars, particularly the Shafi in East Africa, consider the procedure to be mandatory.  Other schools of thought, such as the Hanafi, maintain that it is recommended but not obligatory.
In Sudan, a particularly brutal form of FMG known as infibulation is performed, where girls have to be held or tied down while it is carried out. This procedure removes not only the clitoris but also the labia minora and labia majora. The sides are sutured together – usually with thorns! – and only a tiny opening is left for urine and menstrual flow. The girl, usually age seven or eight, has her legs tied together until she heals.
Many do not. It is hard to get accurate statistics, but countless girls die from hemorrhaging or from shock. Those who survive are likely to experience difficulties walking or urinating for the rest of their lives. Further, when they marry, their husband has to penetrate them forcibly, sometimes requiring weeks of effort. Many husbands lose patience and wind up using knives.
Not surprisingly, this is not a pleasant experience for the bride. There exist, in fact, special honeymoon areas isolated from population centers so that people don’t have to listen to the screams of the brides. Infection and excessive bleeding are almost routine.
But the complications are only beginning: childbirth, without cutting the scar tissue and enlarging the opening, is impossible; many mothers and babies have died because of inadequate or sloppy handling of this essential step. And after each childbirth, most women undergo infibulation again.
In the U.S., doctors have had to have special training about how to deal with increasing numbers of patients who have endured this barbarity.
In Mosul, Iraq, an imam representing the Islamic State has ordered the circumcision of more than two million girls and women ages 11-46 under threat of severe penalties, “to distance them from debauchery and immorality.” This fatwa has shocked many Iraqis who had originally welcomed the Islamic State, because FMG has not traditionally been widespread in Iraq.
The World Health Organization estimates that more than 200 million girls and women worldwide have suffered from this procedure, which offers absolutely no health benefits and on the contrary, leads to numerous and completely unnecessary medical complications. Its primary purpose, regardless of however it is euphemistically described, is to surgically enforce female subservience. A man has the right to sexual pleasure, but a woman is there strictly as a vehicle for his satisfaction; she cannot and should not expect or even dream about reciprocity.
Imagine the outrage if an imam had ordered the castration of more than two million men! Actually, there would be considerable justification: Islamic law recognizes that the male sex drive is stronger than the female, so why not eliminate the problem, men’s inability to control themselves, at its root?
Female genital mutilation is an especially horrific practice that violates the most fundamental rights of girls and women in more than 30 countries. Old habits die hard, but this is one that should be done away with as soon as possible.