The Historical Context

In the early morning hours of September 27, 1996, the Taliban captured Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan. Here is how the event was reported by Mark Austin of Independent Television News (ITN):

MARK AUSTIN, ITN: On a hill overlooking Kabul, these are Afghanistan's new soldiers of God, praying they say for peace and stability in a country that's known only conflict for nearly two decades. But below them is a battle-torn city where the fear of war is fast being replaced by a fear of repression. It's symbolized by the white flag of the Taliban militia, heavily armed religious students who patrol the streets, enforcing their vision of Islamic law. The penalties for disobedience: flogging or even death. Their first edict, women must not work, must not be seen uncovered on the streets. Men must grow beards and pray five times a day. The only sounds from the radio, Islamic prayer and poetry. All music and entertainment is banned here. Television shops are being closed down, TV's and video recorders destroyed, tapes hung from trees.

[Taliban] SPOKESMAN: We will confiscate it and destroy it stage by stage.

MARK AUSTIN, ITN:At the gates of the presidential palace, we took tea with one group of militiamen who told us their goal was a pure Islamic society, free of crime and corruption. But when we toured the palace itself, they proudly showed us works of art they destroyed.

[Taliban] SPOKESMAN: The painting is against Islam.

MARK AUSTIN, ITN: After seventeen years of war and suffering, what this city is now experiencing is the most extreme brand of Islam anywhere in the world. The Taliban takeover may have brought temporary peace of a kind, but for the people of Kabul, it's peace at a price. These are the child victims of the Taliban assault on Kabul, appalling injuries caused by shelling and rocket fire. But their tragedy is compounded by the imposition of strict Islamic laws. Eighty percent of the nurses and 40 percent of the doctors here are women, and now most are too frightened even to leave their homes. These are the hands of one of the city's top surgeons. She won't risk being identified but says it's almost as if women no longer exist.

SURGEON: I can't go to my job. I can't help my people because they said the women must sit in the houses, and they can't go outside. It's really bad for us. I'm very sorry, and I want to leave this country.

MARK AUSTIN, ITN: Many are already leaving Kabul. Aid workers say more than 100,000 have fled in the last few days. Reports of arrests and beatings abound in this city, and for the women here, the veil conceals the fear that children do not hide. The Taliban are urging people to stay, but there's a sense of panic, and the exodus continues, leaving those who remain to come to terms with life under new rulers with new rules and an existence that many women here say is taking them back to the dark ages. (Online News Hour 1996)